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THE 



ATTMCTIOI or THE CROSS; 



DESIGNED TO ILLUSTRATE THE 



LEADING TRUTHS, OBLIGATIONS AND HOPES 



CHRISTIANITY 



BY GARDINER SPRING, D. D., 

PASTOR OF THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. 



NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, 

BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, CORNER OF PARK ROW AND SPRUCE STREET, 

Opposite the City Hall. 



AIDgCgXLVl 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 

GARDINER SPRING, D.D., 

m the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of 
New-York. 



PRINTED BY E. O. JENKINS, 

114 Nassau street. 



So i)is bclobeO <a:|)urcl) anU CConflCCjjation, 

THE AUTHOR'S SOLICITUDE WAS MAINLY DIRECTED 

IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME. 

THEY ARE HIS WITNESSES, THAT THE OBJECT OF HIS SERVICES 

FOR THE PEOPLE AMONG WHOM HE HAS BEEN PERMITTED SO LONG 

TO LABOR, HAS BEEN TO ATTRACT THEM TO THE CROSS OF CHRIST 

TO THEM ESPECIALLY THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY 

BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE 



PASTOR 



INTRODUCTION 



In introducing the following pages to the reader's 
notice, the author need not employ more than a single 
paragraph. If his obligations as ''a preacher of right- 
eousness " bind him to instruct those who attend on his 
ministrations, not less does it become him to respect those 
obligations when he ventures to address them through 
the medium of the press. He has, therefore, no apology 
either for the didactic form of the present volume, or for 
the want of novelty which the more curious reader may 
look for. It is not a passion for novelty that induced 
him to pen these chapters. The kingdom of God is not 
set up in the soul, it is not advanced in the world, save 
by the instrumentality of truth. If the author should be 
accused of having given some portions of what he has 
written too dogmatic a form, his apology must be that 
but one alternative was presented to him — that of greatly 
extending the work itself, or of suppressing those more 
extended proofs of which he has given a bare suggestion. 
Of these two evils, he has selected what seemed to him 
to be the least. The class of truths here presented, 



INTRODUCTION. 

appear to his own mind to be those which are not suf- 
ficiently thought of, and to which greater prominence 
must be given, unless the rising generation grow up in 
ignorance of the great peculiarities of the Gospel, and a 
sickly, stinted piety take the place of that healthful tone 
of moral feeling, and that vigorous faith, which were the 
adornment of the Reformed Churches. Here and there, 
a paragraph and a chapter have been introduced that 
may, perhaps, be inviting to a class of readers who might 
otherwise be less interested in the truths which it is the 
author's desire to illustrate and enforce. But he is not 
aware that in thus indulging himself, he has made any 
sacrifice of the truth itself, or any effort to divert his 
readers without instructing them. The Cross of Christ 
is the hope of the world, not as a ritual emblem — not as 
a wonder-working enchantment — ^but only as it is expres- 
sive of the truth of God, and of a religion that is internal, 
spiritual, practical, intelligible, and personal. It is a 
condensed view of that truth at which the author has 
aimed ; and though his range is somewhat discursive, his 
object is truth, and his desire to utter only '' the mind 
of the Spirit." 

He commends his work to the blessing of God, and the 
ingenuousness of his readers. 

G. S. 

Brick Church Chapel, Nov., 1845. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Narrative of the Cross, 5 

CHAPTER II, 
The Truth of the Cross, . . t i . . . 21 

CHAPTER III. 
The Cross an Effective Ppopitiation for Sin, 43 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Cross the Only Propitiation, 68 

CHAPTER V. 
The AcTUAii Purpose of the Cross, 77 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Cross Accessible to All, 89 

CHAPTER VIl. 
The Cross a Completed Justification, 103 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Faith IN the Cross, ■^. 120 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Inquiring Sinner directed to the Cross, 139 

CHAPTER X. 
A Stumbling-Block removed '_ 157 



CONTENTS. * 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Greatness of Sin no Obstacle to Salvation by the 

Cross, 1S6 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Holiness of the Cross, 202 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Religion of the Cross in Distinction from Religions 

THAT are False and Spurious, 221 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Cross the Test of Character, 242 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Cross the Preservation from Final Apostacy, . . . 260 

CHAPTER XVI. 
FlTLL Assurance of Hope at the Cross, 279 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The World Crucified by the Cross, . 297 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
All Things tributary to the Cross, 324 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The Cross the Admiration of the Universe, 342 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Triumphs of the Cross, 360 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Sinner's Excuses Refuted by the Cross, 378 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Cross Rejected, the Great Sin, 400 

Conclusion, ...*• 412 



THE 



ATTRACTION OF THE CROSS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 

The story of the Cross has been told by its Author. The 
Scriptures uniformly teach us to look upon his death in a 
light totally different from that of any other person. They 
never mention it without emphasis, nor without admira- 
tion. When the great Ruler of the world was pleased 
to accomplish his purposes of mercy toward sinful man, 
lie saw fit to do it in a way that expressed the mysterious 
fullness of his own eternal nature. God is one in nature, 
and three in persons. A fundamental article of the Chris- 
tian religion is, that one of these three divine persons 
became incarnate. '' The word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us." ''■ Unto us a child is born, unto us a 
Son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace." 

When *^ the fullness of time" was come, *^ God sent 
forth his Son, born of a woman, made under the law, 
that he might redeem them that were under the law, 
that they might receive the adoption of sons." His birth 
was humble, away from home, and in a manger ; but it 
was announced by angelic voices, " Behold I bring you 
glad ti4ings of great joy, for unto you is born this day, in 



6 THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 

the City of David, a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord !" 
Behold the wonder ! — the immortal Deity clothed with 
the nature of mortal man — the Everlasting One born in 
time — the God Omnipotent swathed in the bands of 
infancy, and lying in a manger ! This was the begin- 
ning of the Saviour's sorrows. Had he any sense of lof- 
tiness to be subdued, any honest pride of character to be 
wounded, any inbred sentiments of virtuous exaltation to 
be mortified, it would be in view of such mysterious 
humiliation as this. No pomp of earth was there ; no 
show of worldly magnificence ; no regal splendor ; though 
there slept on that pallet of straw One " who hath on 
his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of 
Kings, and Lord of Lords." Judah's crown and 
sceptre might have belonged to his honored parents ; and 
he should of right have been born in the palace of David. 
But this were ill fitting one who came to pour contempt 
upon the pride of man ; whose '' kingdom is not of this 
world," and who, before he assumed this low attue, fore- 
saw that he should put it off only on the Cross. 

The tears that flowed in Bethlehem often flowed* In 
his infancy, he was sought as the victim of Herod's sword ; 
in his youth, he was often obliged to retire from the 
observation of men, that he might not provoke their 
rage. But while for thirty years he avoided the scenes 
of active and public life, his great work of suffering and 
redemption, in all its parts and consequences, was always 
present to his thoughts. Wherever he went, and what- 
ever he did and said, he conducted himself like one who 
felt that he had a great work to perform, and was assidu- 
ously hastening it onward to its final catastrophe. He 
knew what others did not know — that the hand of vio- 
lence would cut him off in the midst of his days ; and in 
view of his coming sorrows, ould often say, '' I have a 



THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 7 

baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened 
until it be accompHshed !" In this respect, as well 
indeed as in every other, he differed from all other men. 
Socrates, though he addressed himself to his fate with 
great calmness, and spake of it with wonderful tranquil- 
lity, and drank the hemlock with unshrinking firmness, 
did not anticipate his destiny from the beginning of his 
career, nor even many days before its close. Those there 
have been who have undertaken enterprises of great toil 
and peril; but the suffering was doubtful, and many a 
gladdening though perhaps deceptive hope was immin- 
gled with their fears. But the Saviour was ascertained 
of his miserable career of suffering, as well as its close of 
agony, from the hour he quitted his Father's bosom. In 
the eternal '' council of peace" he '' gave his life a ran- 
som for many." All his arrangements were directed to 
this one end ; his eye and his course were single ; and 
the farther he went in it, the more ^' steadfastly did he 
set his face to go to Jerusalem." Nothing could divert 
his steps from that melancholy way of tears and blood. 
To every solicitation his reply was, " The Son of Man 
must go up to Jerusalem, and suffer many things, and be 
killed." 

Judea, the ancient country possessed by the Hebrew 
race, lay in the centre of the then inhabited globe, and was 
once the glory of all lands. It was the great thorough- 
fare between the commercial countries of the west 
and south-west, and Babylon and Persia on the east, and 
the trading towns skirting the Black and Caspian Seas. 
Scenes of exciting interest in Judea, and especially in 
Jerusalem, were thus a spectacle to all the nations of the 
earth. Jerusalem was the glory of Judea, as Judea was 
of the world. It was the seat of science and tlie arts, 
the seat of wealth, power and royal magnificence, such 



3 THE NARRATR^E OF THE CROSS. 

as the world has never excelled. At the time the 
Saviour "■ drew near and wept over it," it had lost not a 
little of its ancient splendor. It had been the object of 
contention among surrounding nations, and had long suf- 
fered all the vicissitudes common to war and a warlike 
age. It had been pillaged ; its inhabitants had been slain, 
or led into captivity, and the conquerors had erected 
statues of their own divinities in its temple. Its walls 
had been alternately demolished and rebuilt, and now it 
was the servile tributary to a foreign power, and a mere 
Roman province. Long since has it fulfilled the predic- 
tion of the Prophet, and been " trodden down by the 
Gentiles." The proud Moslem and the turbaned Turk 
encamp in the " stronghold of Zion," and the mosque 
of Omar towers on the mount where once stood the Ark 
of God. " How doth the city sit solitary that was full of 
people ! how is she become as a widow ! The adversary 
hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things. 
How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with 
a cloud in his anger, and cast down from Heaven unto the 
earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his foot- 
stool in the day of his anger !" 

It added interest to the scenes of the crucifixion, that it 
took place during the annual feast of the Jewish Pass- 
over. Not only did this selected period call to mind the 
striking correspondence between the sacrifice of the Pas- 
chal Lamb and the oflTering up of the " Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world ;" but was of 
special importance, since, by divine appointment, it called 
together all the males of the Jewish nation to the na- 
tional altar at Jerusalem. From all parts of the nation they 
were here assembled in vast and solemn concourse to this 
sacred festival, filling '' the guest chambers" of the 
city, and occupying the thousand tents erected on its 



THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 9 

environed hills and plains. It was the last Passover the 
Saviour ate with his disciples. Before another should 
revolve, what mighty changes were to take place, both 
in his condition and theirs ! He was to be crucified, to 
rise from the dead, to ascend ^Ho his Father and their 
Father,'' and enjoy the '' glory he had with Him before 
the world was :" theyj baptized with the Holy Ghost and 
cheered with the promise of his presence, were to go forth 
on the benevolent errand of subduing the nations to the 
faith of his gospel. 

Soon after his arrival in Jerusalem, and just before the 
festival, he said to his disciples, " With desire have I 
desired to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer, ^^ A 
little before the feast, Judas Iscariot had gone to the 
Chief Priests and offered to betray him. This hypocriti- 
cal traitor had covenanted to sell his Master for *' thirty 
pieces of silver " — the fixed price of a slave according to 
the Jewish law. While sitting at the Passover, Jesus 
said to his disciples, '' Verily, I say unto you, that one of 
you shall betray me." And not long after this, as though 
he would hasten the fearful consummation, and saw that 
events must now succeed one another with increased 
rapidity, or they could not be accomplished within the 
prescribed period, turning to his betrayer, he said, '' What 
thou doest, do quickly.'^' I am ready; delay no longer. 
*^ He then, having received the sop, went immediately 
out, and it was night *^^ It was a night much to be 
remembered. The signal was given, and the last scene 
of our Lord's sufferings began. " When he was gone 
out, Jesus said. Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God 
is glorified in him!" The great design which he came 
to accomplish was to be forthwith fulfilled. 

Near to Jerusalem on the east, and at the foot of the 
Mount of Olives, where glided the brook Kcdron, was the 
1* 



J^0 THE NARRATIVE OF TIIE CROSS. 

garden of Gethsemane, It was a much -loved retreat ; 
and "thither" the Saviour was "wont to resort with 
his disciples." There are seasons, in the immediate view 
of trial, when the anticipations of a sensitive mind equal 
the reality ; and which, if contemplated with tranquil- 
lity, are the surest pledge that the reality, however 
dreadful, will be encountered with a submissive and 
determined purpose. For reasons known only to him 
who saw nigh at hand the mighty struggle he was about 
to endure, such was not the garden of Gethsemane to this 
great sufferer. He was agitated ; cries of bitter suffering 
escaped his lips, and symptoms of mysterious distress 
came upon him, too exquisite for the human mind to con- 
ceive of. He took with him Peter, James and John, 
and began to "be sorrowful and very heavy, '^^ The 
enraged multitude had not yet scourged him ; nor had 
the nails pierced his hands and feet ; nor were the light 
and love of heaven yet eclipsed. Yet was it an hour of 
darkness, of temptation, of conflict, of depression too 
deep to be endured. Agonies of fear were extorted from 
him, which, even in view of the death by crucifixion, we 
had not looked for in One so spotless, and whom death in 
any form could not injure. There was something in this 
approaching scene which the eye of man did not behold. 
For even though '' the whole strength of divinity" was 
put in question for it, yet was he so moved by the appre- 
hension of evils which he foresaw must be encountered, 
that the sacred historian informs us he was " very heavy 
and sore amazed,'^ It was not the death of one that he 
was about to endure, but the concentrated wrath of God 
which his violated law denounces upon millions. It is 
no marvel he was afraid. To all who suffered, and espe- 
cially to his disciples, he had hitherto been the giver of 
consolation : now he was one that needed it. ' ' My soul , ' ' 



THE XARRATH'E OF THE CROSS. IX 

said he, "is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; sit 
ye here, while I go yonder and pray." Verily, "he bore 
our griefs, he carried our sorrows." There was a burden 
upon hini which, unaided and alone, it was impossible for 
hini to sustain. Thoughts crowded on his mind that 
filled him with sadness, with terror ; and such was his 
anguish that " he was in an agony ^ and sweat as it were 
great drops of blood falling down to the ground." As 
though at such an hour he would not that his intercourse 
with heaven should be heard by mortal ears, he withdrev/ 
himself from his disciples about the length of a stone's 
throw, and " fell on his face and prayed, my Father! 
if it he possible let this cup pass from me : nevertheless y 
not as I will, but as thou wilt/'^ And again he went 
away the second time and prayed, " O my Father, if 
tliis cup may not pass from me except I drink it, thy will 
be done !" And " he left them again, and went away 
and prayed the third time, saying the same words." 
Nor were his cries unheeded. We are told by an apostle 
that " he was heard z?i that he feared.''' His fear was 
probably excited, not only by the invading sufferings, 
but by the apprehension that he might not have strength 
for the unequaled trial. In this fear he was relieved by 
a special messenger from heaven. " And there appeared 
an angel from heaven strengthening him." Fitting ser- 
vice for an angelic heart! Wonderful proof of his 
humiliation and suffering, that, at such an hour, a crea- 
ture should appear to minister to his Creator ! It was not 
to lighten the burden of sin and sorrow wliich he bore, 
nor to remove the cup. Rather was it to reach it to him 
undiluted — to place it in his hands in all its bitterness. 
But it was "to strengthen him." It would seem as 
though it were, with heaven- s sweetest, most inspiring 



12 THE NARRATIVE OF THE CR05JS. 

smile, to say. Brink it, Son of God ! for a world's 
redemption y drink ! 

Centuries before this affecting scene took place, the 
Prophet Isaiah had written, '-^ Behold my servant whom 
I wphold, mine elect m whom my soul delighteth ; I 
have put my spirit upon him ; he shall not fail nor he 
discouraged,^^ Never was there such an awful enter- 
prise undertaken : in any other hands it would have 
failed, and every other being in the universe would have 
sunk under it in hopeless discouragement and dismay. 
But he did not fail ; nor was he discouraged by these pre- 
libations of the bitter cup. The time of prayer was over. 
Instructive lesson ! unutterably tender encouragement to 
those whom bitter experience has taught that, " if they 
would reign with Christ they must also suffer with 
him !" Many is the child of God whose fears, like those 
of his Divine Master, have been allayed by prayer. The 
angel of mercy has wiped away his tears, and he has 
come forth calm and collected, not because the dangers 
he feared can be averted, but because, in the lone 
garden and darker night of his affliction, he has found 
some unwonted confirmation of the promise, " As thy 
day is, so shall thy strength be." In Gethsemane, the 
Saviour had vanquished fear, and was furnished for the 
conflict. Mark the tranquil spirit with which he rose 
from the earth on which he had lain prostrate, and met 
the traitor who was now coming with a great multitude 
with stones and staves from the Chief Priests. " Friend / 
whererefore art thou come ?" " Hail Master ! and he 
kissed him," was the foul betrayer's only reply. And 
it was sufficiently significant. The Son of Man was 
betrayed into the hands of his murderers. But this be- 
trayed One was no longer agitated. No fear sat upon his 



THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 13 

brow ; tlonbt and fear had departed ; and in their place 
a calm and unwavering confidence had taken up their 
abode in his bosom. To the rufi[ian band who came to 
seize him, he advanced and said, '^ I am he !" There 
was something in this avowal so expressive of his supreme 
dignity and power, that it overwhelmed them, ruffians as 
they were. " They went backward and fell to the 
ground." Jesus asked them, ''Whom seek ye 1" In 
this inquiry there was a deep meaning, and they were 
speechless — they had no words to reply. They seized 
and bound him, and led him before his mortal enemies. 
These were to be judges ; these were to decide whethejr 
the Son of God were a blasphemer^ and to be adjudged 
to death ! And here he stood alone. Peter denied him, 
and the rest of his disciples " forsook him and fled." 
Human attachments retired under this dark cloud ; 
Christian affection itself grew cold, and solemn oaths 
were disregarded — thus fulfilling the prediction, '' He 
trode the wine-press alone, and of the people there was 
none with him." 

The haste with which his trial was conducted was an 
outrage upon the very forms of justice and humanity. 
Caiaphas, the High Priest, presiding over the Sanhedrim, 
seemed at once to prejudge the question. He instructed 
the Council, and with prophetic instinct, " that it was ex- 
pedient for one man to die for the people, that the whole 
nation should not perish." This was " their hour and 
the power of darkness." Having thus gotten the Sa- 
viour into their hands, they employed the entire night, 
not in idle and cruel scrutiny alone, but in heaping 
reproach and injury upon him whom their severest scrutiny 
found so irreproachable and pure. It was a night of 
fatigue and anguish to him ; to them of chagrin and ma- 
lignity. Notwithstanding all the false witnesses they could 



14 THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 

suborn, they utterly failed to substantiate a single charge 
against him. At length the High Priest called upon 
him under a solemn oath, to tell them " if he were the 
Son of God." His answer was, "I am; and hereafter 
ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of 
power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." This 
avowal, instead of opening their hearts to truth, or their 
consciences to apprehension, was just what the rancor 
of his malignant accusers desired. The popular tumult 
was now exasperated. It was an inflamed mob making 
themselves strong for their desperate purpose, and bore 
no resemblance to a grave tribunal to whose hands were 
committed the solemn responsibilities of penal justice. 
The meekness and tranquillity of their prisoner had no 
effect to abate their fury. When the decisive question 
was proposed. Is the prisoner guilty 1 they answered 
and said, "He is gvHiy of death. ^^ Then followed a 
scene of indignity and ouU'age, in the very sanctuary of 
justice, that was a fittmg prelude to the Cross. They 
'* spit upon him ;" they '* buffeted him ;" and others 
^' smote him with the palms of their hands," saying, 
'^ Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote 
thee !" Yea, the very " servants " did strike him with 
the palms of their hands. 

The morning had now dawned on that darkest, bright- 
est, most memorable day in the history of time. The 
power of life and death was not at this time in the hands 
of the Jews. Early in the morning, therefore, ^*the 
Chief Priests held a consultation with the elders and 
scribes and the whole council," the result of which was 
that Jesus was bound with cords, and carried before 
Pontius Pilate^ the Roman governor, and a heathen 
judge, as accused of the crime of treason against the 
state. Early in the reign of Tiberius, Pilate had been 



NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. I5 

appointed the governor of Judea, in the room of 
Valerius Gracchus. He was a cruel dissembling tyrant, 
and in every view a man of most odious character, 
and sufficiently familiar with blood. The unwilling- 
ness of a man of his impetuous and inexorable spirit 
to condemn Jesus, would, one would have sup- 
posed, have been proof of his innocence even to the re- 
lentless Jews. He was thrice brought before Pilate, and 
on the first trial formally pronounced innocent. Upon 
a private interview with his prisoner, on a second trial, 
Pilate asked him "if he were the King of the Jews." 
Christ acknowledged that he was, but told him that '^ his 
kingdom was not of this world." Pilate, therefore, per- 
sisted in his sentence, and informed the Jews that " he 
found no cause of death in him." The Jews were 
clamorous ; and Pilate, desirous to avoid the responsi- 
bility of a final decision, directed them to carry him 
before Herod, who happened at that time to be in Jeru- 
salem, and to whose jurisdiction, as Tetrarch of Galilee, 
the Galilean might properly belong. Herod, after 
scarcely the forms of investigation, clothed him with a 
purple robe, exposed him to the mockery of his guards, 
and sent him back through the streets of Jerusalem to 
Pilate. Pilate, at the instigation of the Jews, consented 
to institute a third trial. The prisoner was now led into 
the praetor's court, and there contemptuously and cruelly 
tied to a pillar and scourged, thus " giving his back to 
the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the 
hair." Still this severe Roman judge affirmed his inno- 
cence. And as a proof that he would have no part in 
the death of an innocent man, he washed his hands in 
the presence of the people ; till, wearied by their clamors 
and impelled by their malice, he gave him up at last to 
suffer the sentence of their law, while they, in reply, only 



15 THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROfeS. 

Uttered the fearful imprecation so terribly fulfilled in their 
subsequent history, " His blood be on us and on our 
children !" 

The crime of which he was accused before the court 
of Israel was blasphemy^ and the penalty of the Jewish 
law was death by stoning. But this would not satisfy 
his blood-thirsty murderers ; " Crucify him ! crucify 
him !" was their infuriate cry. '' To the cross ! to the 
cross !" Before the sentence was executed, he was 
forced to endure all the scorn and cruelty which the 
ingenuity of his tormentors could devise. The soldiers 
derided him ; they put a wreath of thorns upon his head ; 
they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe ; and, 
having given him a reed for a sceptre, they thronged 
around him, contemptuously bowed their knees, and 
cried in derision, '' Hail, thou King of the Jews !" Here, 
too, they spit upon him, and taking the mock sceptre 
from his hand, '' smote him on the head." 

He was now ready to be offered — such a victim as 
the sun never beheld — a sacrifice to abolish and swal- 
low up all other sacrifices — the last oblation. Justice 
burned with wrathful fury. It was a spectacle to the 
universe. God beheld it, for God was there. His 
invisible angels laid by their harps, and were the silent 
and astonished spectators of the scene. And the dark 
spirits of hell were there, flitting across and hovering over 
the scene, and instigating the murderers. They led him 
a little way out of the city, and there " they crucified 
him." It was not a sudden and immediate death, but 
one of agonizing, lingering torment. Nor was it an 
honorable one, but the most ignominious ever imposed 
upon the vilest of men. The Jewish law stigmatized 
it as the foulest and most indelible curse, while the san- 
guinary code of Rome reserved it as the last and bitterest 



THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 17 

ingredient infused into the cup of misery and shame. 
They strip him of his cloak, and then of his coat, and 
then take off his under garments, that he may be naked 
upon the Cross. They fasten him by nails driven through 
his hands and feet, and '' with him two malefactors, 
Jesus in the midst." ^' It pleased the Lord to bruise him 
and put him to grief." This was the bitter cup, and 
the last stage of his woful passion. 

There was something in this scene of wo which I 
know not that the human mind has ever comprehended. 
" Never was there any sorrow like unto his sorrow." 
Nor do I know that its full weight and measure can be 
comprehended; and only know that, sustained as the 
man Christ Jesus was by his union with the Deity, he was 
overwhelmed. Nay, more, though the created and un- 
created natures were here combined in one person, it 
shrunk and staggered. The commission was executed, 
*' Awake, sword, against my Shepherd, against the 
man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts." And 
when that sword descended, griefs overwhelmed him 
that were equivalent to the claims of avenging justice on 
sinning men, and griefs, in many particulars, resembling 
those which overwhelm the reprobate in the world of 
mourning. Guiltless and adorable as he was, he held 
in his hands that cup of trembling, " the dregs whereof 
all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and 
drink them." 

The only relief to the gloom of this dark scene is 
found in the dignity and loveliness of the sufferer. 
While the infatuated Jews still indulged themselves in 
tlieir ill-timed and cruel raillery, wagging their heads 
and saying, '* If thou be the Son of God, come down 
from the cross," the sole rebuke he uttered was expressed 
in the prayer, '' Father, forgive them, for (hey know not 



18 THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 

what they do !" To the suppliant malefactor who was sus- 
pended by his side he said, '' This day shalt thou be with 
me in Paradise." Here too we find one at least, the best 
beloved of his disciples, and some faithful women, undis- 
mayed by the terrors of the scene, and watching him to 
the last. " Near the cross stood Mary, his mother, weep- 
ing ; and with her, John, the disciple whom he loved." 
To her he says, '^ Woman, behold thy son ;^^ to him, 
'' behold thy mother !" 

It was now the ninth hour of the day. The important 
moment fixed on from eternity for the Author of life to 
die was at hand. There had been a preternatural dark- 
ness over the land from the sixth hour, when this mourn- 
ful scene began, to the ninth hour. The Father hitherto 
was wont to smile on his beloved Son ; but now the sufferer 
cried in vain, '^ My God ! my God ! why hast thou for- 
saken me ?" The earth trembled ; the rocks cleft asun- 
der ; the graves yielded up their dead ; the vail of the tem- 
ple, for so many ages undisturbed, was rent in twain from 
the top to the bottom ; and Jesus cried with a loud voice, 
<^ It is finished !" The scene was over. And when he 
had said, " Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit," 
he " bowed his head and gave up the ghost." 

The mighty work of man's redemption was finished. 
The great event on which Christianity turns was now 
completed. The Eternal Son of God had expired on 
THE Cross. And now over that vast multitude which 
crowd the top of Calvary and skirt its declivities, is there 
the deepest and the most solemn silence. Not a shout is 
heard even from the embittered Jews. Perhaps their 
malice is satiated by a view of the pale and bleeding bod}^ 
of the Nazarene. Perhaps the words still sound in their 
ears, '' Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do," and a secret misgiving holds them mute and 



THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 19 

Speechless. <' All the people,'^ says the sacred historian, 
'' that came together to that sight, smote upon their breasts 
and returned." One voice only was heard, breaking the 
profound stillness, the voice of the Pagan Centurion, who 
stood in the garb of a Roman soldier near the Cross. 
'^ And when the Centurion which stood over against him 
saw what was done, he said. Truly this man was the 
Son of God /" 

Such is the story of the Cross. Has it no attractions ? 
Other events there have been of mighty interest ; but this 
outweighs them all. Distinguished in the counsels of 
heaven above all other scenes ever beheld by angels or 
men, this tragical event is destined to awake the atten- 
tion of a slumbering world. With eager expectation did 
men look forward to it before it was accomplished ; and, 
now that it is past, will they look back upon it to the end 
of time. The world is full of proof of the intense inte- 
rest with which the giddy and thoughtless have contem- 
plated the Cross, and the devout gloried in it. No minis- 
ter of the Gospel ever rehearsed the narrative without a 
listening auditory ; no mother ever sang it over the pil- 
low of her babe without tenderness ; no child ever read 
it without a throbbing heart. No living man ever 
perused it with indifference ; no dying man ever listened 
to it without emotion. The Cross will be remembered 
when everything else is forgotten. It has intrinsic power, 
and God himself has invested it with attractions pecu- 
liarly its own. The Scriptures point to the Cross, and 
say, '' Behold the Lamb of God !" The most emphatic 
announcement they make is, ^' Behold the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world !" The bright- 
est and most wondrous vision of John, of all he beheld 
on earth when lightened by the glory of the descending 
angel, and of all he beheld in heaven, was that of which 



20 THE NARRATIVE OF THE CROSS. 

he says, " I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne, 
and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the Elders, 
stood a Lamb as it had been slain P^ 

Nothing will interest you like the Cross. Nothing can 
do for you what the Cross has done. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

What is truth? The poet well replies, '' 'Twas Pi- 
late's question put to truth itself." Never was there but 
one individual who could stand forth before the world 
and say, '' I am the truth !" It was not Socrates, nor 
Confucius, nor Mahomet ; nor yet Luther, nor Calvin, 
nor Edwards. Yet one there was, in whom all truth 
was so concentrated that he was truth itself. It was 
the child of Mary and the Son of God ; it was he who 
was crucified on Calvary. 

We may be interested in the narrative of the Cross ; but 
what if it should turn out to be fiction ? If it be a true 
narrative, what is its import, and what are the truths it 
embodies ! Men need a religion which satisfies their 
intelligence. We affirm that the Cross furnishes such a 
religion ; that it is the religion revealed from heaven ; the 
only religion that possesses the attraction of truth and 
certainty, and in which the most sceptical may have im- 
movable confidence. Religion may venture to more 
than chasten her faith with hope, and timidly trust that 
the word of the God of truth has not deceived her. She 
dwells by the well-spring of life, and draws from it the 
pure waters of salvation. If men may be certain of any- 
thing that is not the mere object of sense, they may put 
confidence in the trutli of the Cross. The topics on 
which it treats are grand and awful, as well as inex- 
pressibly interesting and tender; but it has nothing to 



22 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

do with vague conjecture, studied mystery, profuse 
verbiage without meaning, or laborious trifling without 
intelligence and instruction. It is not a dim uncertainty 
that rests upon the views there acquired. They are clear 
and permanent convictions, because they are true. God 
approves them ; and the Holy Spirit, the author of truth 
and peace, gives them a stability and power which 
delusion and error can never originate. 

The Narrative of the Cross is itself a true nar- 
rative. This is a simple question of fact. Was there, 
or was there not, such a person as Jesus Christ, who, 
under the reign of Tiberius Csesar, was accused of treason 
and blasphemy, found guilty, and put to death 1 The 
most full and satisfactory account of this transaction is 
found in the writings of the four Evangelists ; which, 
by the wonderful care of Divine Providence, after having 
been distinctly recognized from age to age as the works 
of those whose names they bear, and as the same un- 
corrupted works as when they came from the pen of 
their authors, and after having been circulated through- 
out the whole Christian world, have come down to us in all 
genuineness and authenticity. Their authors were either 
deceived or deceivers, or honest and true men. They 
were not deceived, because the events which they narrate 
never could have been the creatures of imagination. 
The wildest enthusiast in the world could not have been 
the subject of such delusion, as to have believed them 
real, when they were unreal. Nor were they deceivers. 
There is every consideration against such an hypothesis 
which can be furnished by the nature of the case, by 
their own character and history, and by their published 
writings. The events and circumstances of the cruci- 
fixion are such as never ftould have been got up by artful 
^nd designing men ; much less by the illiterate fishermen 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. gg^ 

of the lakes of Judea, who quitted their nets to announce 
them to the world. To an impartial mind, their narra- 
tive carries the evidence of its verity on the face of it. 
No impostor ever penned such an account as that in the 
closing chapters of the four Evangelists — furnishing, as 
each of them does, in the minuteness of his details, so 
many continually recurring means of detecting deception 
if any were practiced. While each narrator speaks for 
himself, and the variations in his narrative show that 
each wrote independently, and without any preconcert 
with the others, each gives substantially the same ac- 
count ; and the seeming inconsistencies, just enough to 
test the ingenuousness and research of the reader, all 
disappear upon a careful inspection. Men do not act 
without a motive. What was the motive of the men 
who stood before the world as the persevering, un- 
flinching witnesses of the crucifixion, if they were false 
witnesses ? Was it wealth, pleasure, or fame 1 Was 
it the poor ambition of being the founders of a false 
religion, not only at the expense of that which all 
impostors have ever sought, but in the prospect of poverty, 
dishonor, suffering and death 1 Says the celebrated 
Rousseau, ^' The history of Jesus Christ has marks of 
truth so palpable, so striking, so perfectly immutable, 
that its inventor would excite our admiration more than 
its hero." Infidels themselves have not ventured to 
take refuge in the presumption that the narrative of the 
Cross is not a true history. The events themselves, 
and the narrators of them, have been canvassed with 
a severity to which no other facts and no other men 
have been subjected, for more than eighteen hundred 
years. It was, as we have already seen, so ordered 
in the wisdom of Divine Providence, that these events 
did not take place in a dark and illiterate age. If the 



24 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

scenes of Calvary were a fable, it is to the last degree 
absurd to suppose that there was not light, and logical 
acumen, and learning enough in the Augustan age of 
Rome, to have demonstrated them to be fabulous. 
They profess to have taken place at a time and place 
where strangers of distinction, as well as the entire male 
population of Judea, were assembled ; under the official 
direction of individuals whose names, character and his- 
tory, are of sufficient notoriety to have furnished security 
against everything in the form of imposition. Never was 
greater opportunity given to the adversaries of Christian- 
ity to disprove the narrative, than was given at the time 
when the event professes to have taken place. The first 
spot where the apostles were directed to make their first 
public announcement of it was in Jerusalem itself, and in 
the presence of his murderers — the last place where, and 
the last men before whom, they would present them- 
selves, if their testimony Avas not true. Hence the Jews, 
while they denied the resurrection of Christ, never thought 
of calling in question his crucifixion ; but gloried in it, 
and triumphantly adhered to the imprecation, '' His 
blood be on us, and on our children !" Nor have enlight- 
ened Pagans withheld from it their testimony. Sueto- 
nius, Tacitus and Pliny all record it, as a matter of 
acknowledged history, and as impartial historians deemed 
it an event too important to suppress ; while Celsus, Por- 
phyry and Julian, learned and inveterate infidels as they 
were, confirm the testimony. Pilate, the Roman Gov- 
ernor of Judea, as was his official duty to do, sent an 
account of the crucifixion to the Emperor Tiberius, and 
that account was deposited in the archives of the em- 
pire. The annals of the Pagan world, to this day, pre- 
serve this great fact, as well as the miraculous events that 
attended it, and also a minute account of the Saviour's 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. ^ 

character and miracles. There is abundant evidence of 
the truth of the Scriptural narrative of the crucifixion, 
independently of the Scriptures themselves ; so that '' if 
the narrative of the Evangelists were now lost, all the 
material facts connected with that memorable scene might 
be collected from Pagan historians, and Jewish and other 
Antichristian writers.'^ 

The question naturally presents itself, How far does 
this fact avail in proving the truth of that system of reli- 
gion which is contained in the Holy Scriptures ? Here 
several thoughts deserve consideration. Human reason 
has never been able to satisfy itself with a religion of its 
own inventing. It has had every opportunity of doing 
so, which the most learned age, and the finest minds could 
furnish ; and the result of the experiment has been the 
grossest darkness, the most foolish absurdities, and the 
greatest corruption of morals. The proof of this observa- 
tion is in the history of the past. If you look to Egypt, 
the cradle of science and the arts ; if to Greece, whose 
genius and literature still constitute the acknowledged 
standard of taste ; if to Rome, the garlands of whose phi- 
losophers are still green upon its grave ; you see that 
^'the world by wisdom knew not God," and that *^ profess- 
ing themselves to be wise, they became fools." If there 
is a God, infinitely great and good, the Creator and Gov- 
ernor of men, it is reasonable to suppose he would give 
them a revelation of his will. Men have indeed no right 
to demand such a revelation, nor may they complain if it 
is denied. Yet from what they know of God in his works 
and in his Providence, were it not reasonable to hope for 
it? We know there was a sort of vague, undefinable 
impression on the minds of many of the heathen, of some 
approaching day of light, and that this anticipation became 
very general as the time for the Messiah's advent drew 
2 



2Q THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

nigh. And dim as these hopes were, they were not in 
vain. This floating anticipation became settled, and was 
realized when " in the fulness of time God sent forth his 
Son," and this vision of a golden age became a present 
reality when he expired on the Cross. If the narrative of 
the cross is a true narrative, the religion that is based 
upon it is the true religion. Its claims rest upon the 
truth of this narrative. If there was such a person as 
Jesus of Nazareth — one possessing his unblemished cha- 
racter, imbued with the wisdom expressed in his public 
and private discourse?, working the miracles which he 
wrought, living the life he led, and dying the death he 
died — then is Christianity most certainly true. On this 
basis the apostles themselves rest this sacred structure. 
*^ I have delivered unto you, first of all, how that christ 
DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures." This is 
the sure '^ corner stone" which is laid in Zion ; the Rock 
on which God builds his church. 

Let us look at this thought for a few moments, and 
inspect some of its bearings. The death of Christ is 
indubitable witness to the truth of the Old Testament. 
If this fact is demonstrated, the truth of the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures is demonstrated, the Divine mission of 
Moses and the prophets is confirmed, and the verity of 
their writings substantiated. To see the force of this 
remark, we have only to suppose that the crucifixion of 
Christ had never taken place. In such an event we 
must give up the Old Testament Scriptures ; we must 
regard them as erroneous, and look upon them as an 
uninspired volume. A dark and heavy night would 
rest upon the whole system of religion which they re- 
veal. They would present an inexplicable volume, con- 
taining many things above the reach of created wisdom, 
and at the same tirne unmeaning prefigurations and false 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. <^7 

prophecies. The death of Christ sheds the only light 
upon them they are capable of receiving, and furnishes 
the'only solution of what must otherwise have remained 
impenetrably mysterious. They would have remained 
a sealed book had not '' the Lion of the tribe of Judah 
been worthy to open the book, and loose the seals 
thereof." The Cross alone solves the mystery of the 
animal sacrifices of the patriarchal age, and of that 
bloody economy which God instituted among the Jews. 
Those ancient oracles are dumb, those ancient altars give 
no instruction to the world, if they do not teach that God 
requires duty or suffering, obedience or penalty, a per- 
fect righteousness or a perfect reparation ; and the lesson 
they read no man can understand, if they tell not of par- 
don from the Cross. The same may be said of the whole 
system of prophecy contained in the Old Testament. Its 
great outlines, as well as its wonderfully minute details, 
all concentrate in the Cross, and are there determined 
with the most perfect precision. There is the forsaken 
and reproached One ; the unresisting and abused One ; the 
One who was '' sold for thirty pieces of silver ;" the One 
against whom "the kings of the earth set themselves, 
and the rulers took counsel together ;" the One who was 
^* cut off not for himself," whose " feet and hands were 
pier ced ," and who was ' ' numbered with the transgressors . ' ' 
There is he who was "laughed to scorn ;" against whom 
men " should shoot out the lip and shake the head ;" 
whose garments should be divided between his murderers ; 
who should be forsaken of God ; to whom his enemies 
should give the vinegar and gall ; whose bones should re- 
main unbroken, and who should " make his grave with 
the wicked and the rich in his death." Vast as is the en- 
tire system of prophecy — reaching from the fall of man to 
ihe consummation of all things — darkly as its oracle some- 



28 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

times spake, and confined as it was to a people from whom 
the Messiah was to be descended; it is all plain and intelli- 
gible when we see it pointing to him who hung on Calvary. 
In him alone it receives its fulfillment ; and it is by their 
relation to him that a multitude of otherwise unimportant 
events, of which it speaks, are magnified. Such events 
multiply and grow upon us the more we become familiar 
with the sacred writings, each falling m with the great 
consummation on Calvary, and carrying conviction to 
the mind, that if the narrative of the Cross is true, Chris- 
tianity cannot be false. Hence, we find that our Lord 
and his apostles appeal to the Old Testament in proof of 
Christianity, and by an induction of so many particulars, 
and so striking, as to constitute an incontrovertible argu- 
ment to show that the whole method of salvation by the 
Cross of Christ was foreseen and foretold under the Old 
Testament, and that its authors were divinely inspired. 
And if this be so, the conclusion is equally plain and 
incontrovertible, that the New Testament Scriptures, in 
which alone the Old terminate and are fulfilled, are a 
divine revelation, and that Jesus came, in accordance 
with the declared counsel of heaven, to do and suffer 
the will of his Father. And this conclusion is corrobo- 
rated by the fact, that scattered as were the writers of 
this ancient volume through the centuries that inter- 
vened between Moses and Malachi, they all pursued one 
great end, and were all under the absorbing influence of 
this one thought — the redemption of man by the cruci- 
fied Son of God. 

It is far from the design of these pages to furnish even 
an outline of the evidences in favor of Christianity. It 
is but to take a transient view of them while standing 
by the Cross. It is here the Christian loves to view 
them, and discovers a system of belief of which God is 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. ^ 

the Author, and sees doctrines and duties which have 
upon them the image and superscription of the Deity. 
The Cross of Christ has an inseparable connection with 
all that is peculiar in the religion that is revealed from 
heaven. The Cross and the Bible stand or fall together. 
You cannot take away the Cross without demolishing 
the whole structure ; while, if the Cross remains, the 
whole superstructure remains, '^ built upon the founda- 
tion of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself 
being the chief corner-stone/' Let this link of the chain 
be broken, and there is nothing to support the whole; 
let this be supported, and the whole is supported. The 
man who reads the Bible nearest the Cross, sees most of 
its high credentials, and feels most deeply that it con- 
tains a system of truth every way worthy of God to re- 
veal. The principles which it unfolds, the religion it 
inculcates, the method of the divine administration it 
has introduced, and its wonderful salvation, beheld and 
contemplated amid the scenes of Gethsemane and Cal- 
vary, are fitted to produce the strong, the vivid, perma- 
nent impression, that they are too lofty to have been 
within the reach of human invention — too holy and pure 
to have originated with so polluted a source — too good 
to be attributed save to the Father of Lights. Where 
the heart feels the influence and power of the Cross, it has 
evidence of the truth of it which nothing else can give ; 
views too clear, and illumined, and transforming, ever to 
be forgotten, or greatly eclipsed. " He that believeth on 
the Son of God hath the witness in himself." The 
word is sealed to him by the Spirit, who wrote it. His 
own heart responds to the truth of the Cross. He has felt 
its teachings to be true within his own soul. To him 
belongs a deeper Scriptural wisdom than all scholarship 
can bestow — a wisdom grounded on his perception of the 



30 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

internal evidence, as made known by the adaptations of all 
the doctrine which is without, to all the '' felt necessities of 
the spirit which is within." Nor is this any visionary evi- 
dence. The great evidence in favor of Christianity is 
found in Christianity itself ; in a character so heavenly, 
that its moral elements never come into contact with the 
depraved heart without producing an effervescence that in- 
dicates their mutual revulsion ; in a power so subduing to 
that revulsion that we cannot fail to discover in it the finger 
of God. The Cross, therefore, stands out before the world 
as embodying the great system of revealed truth, in oppo- 
sition to all false religions, and the evidence by which it 
commends itself is adapted to every class of minds. Before 
any man renounces it, let him be well persuaded there is 
any other religion revealed from heaven. Let him un- 
dertake to specify the kind and the amount of testimony 
required to satisfy his own mind that God has revealed 
his truth to men, and he may find it all, in all its variety, 
and in all its cogency and tenderness, at the Cross. 

There is another view of the truth of the Cross. The 
manifestations of God's truth to men have been pro- 
gressive, just as are the manifestations of his wisdom, 
power and goodness in the material creation. At one 
time the earth is clothed w^ith the mantle of Winter ; 
then succeeds the preparation and the promise of the 
Spring; then the warmth and kindliness of Summer; till 
at last Autumn pours forth its rich treasures, and the 
divine goodness gushes from over-flowing fountains, 
and runs in ten thousand channels, everywhere dis- 
tributing fertility and gladness. So with the means of 
intellectual and moral culture. The Cross is far in 
advance of all other religions revealed from heaven. The 
light of truth and mercy had its commencement and 
progress. At one time, it was like the flickering lamp 



THE TKUTH OF THE CROSS, 31 

which appeared to Abraham ; at another, like the burn- 
ing bush which appeared on Horeb ; at another, like the 
pillar and the cloud in the desert ; at another, like the 
Shekinah over the Ark of the Covenant; at another, like 
the brighter emanations of that glory in the temple, 
when the priests and the people could not look upon it 
for the brightness ; and at another, like the splendid 
vision of the Prophet when he beheld the Son of Man, 
the Lord of heaven and earth, high and lifted up, and 
his train filled the sanctuary, and the whole earth was full 
of his glory. This progressive revelation of the truth 
continued until the crucifixion. The light had been 
gradually rising ever since the first promise in Paradise ; 
and now it was high day. The ancient Patriarchs and 
Jews lived under a comparatively dark dispensation, a 
dispensation-of types and shadows, and which served 
" unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.'^ It 
was not a "faultless covenant;" for if it had been, 
'^ then should no place have been sought for the second." 
It was " a figure for the time then present," and never 
designed to be God's clearest revelation to the world. 
There is a dispensation which is far in advance of it, and 
the great High Priest of which " hath obtained a more 
excellent ministry, by how much more also he was the 
Mediator of a better Covenant, which was established 
upon better premises." The blood of the sacrifice offered 
by Abel was for himself alone, and had no suflficiency, 
even as a prefiguration, beyond his own wants. The 
sacrifices under the Jewish law respected only the Jewish 
nation. Both Patriarchal and Mosaic sacrifices were 
positive and not moral institutions ; they were founded 
on relations and circumstances that were mutable, and 
therefore might be, and were, abrogated. These latter 
were designed to preserve the Hebrew nation distinct 



32 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

from all other nations of the earth, until he came who 
was God manifest in the flesh, and by whose death the 
wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was broken 
down, and glad tidings announced to all people. This 
was one of the offensive features of the Cross to men 
who '' thought that they were righteous and despised 
others," and rendered it ''to the Jew a stumbling block." 
But it is a blessed and glorious feature of it, that it opens 
this "new and living way, "and invites all to draw nigh 
without distinction of clime, condition, or character. It 
is a revelation that covers a broader surface than any 
antecedent revelation. Truth here presents her attrac- 
tions to all the children of men. This was an important 
advance in the series of divine revelations. The Jews 
were not more distinguished from other and Gentile na- 
tions by the truth contained in the Oracles of God under 
the Old Testament dispensation, than are men in Christian 
lands now distinguished from the ancient Jews by the 
truth revealed in the Gospel of Christ. Christian privi- 
leges are less restricted and more spiritual. The hour is 
come in which neither the mountain of Samaria, nor the 
Temple at Jerusalem, are the only fitting places for social 
devotion. Men may now worship anywhere ; erect sanctu- 
aries anywhere ; and wherever they are erected, God re- 
cords his name. Never till Christ came, was the promise 
uttered, '' Where two or three are met together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them." Never before 
his death, was there such intercourse between heaven 
and earth. Never before was there such a society collect- 
ed in the world, as that of which he is the head^ and his 
Cross the standard. Scattered as they are, and separated 
as they are by lines of external organization, all true 
believers form now one spiritual community and one 
church, because they have " one Lord," who, for the 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. l^ 

suffering of death, is crowned with glory and honor. The 
Sun of Righteousness is now pouring a flood of Hght upon 
the dark nations. Jesus came down to earth, assumed 
our nature and died the just for the unjust, in order that 
the worship of God might become the devotion of the 
world, and the religion of his truth and grace the uni- 
versal religion. " Behold the tabernacle of God is with 
men, and he will dwell among them !" There is no 
*' holy place," no "holy of holies," into which the 
High Priest alone entered once a j^ear — where he that 
sits between the cherubim is invoked ; but wherever 
and whenever men draw nigh to him by faith in the 
blood of his Son, then is the hour of intercourse, and 
there is his chamber of audience. " For ye are not 
come to the mount that might be touched and that 
burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and 
tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice 
of words ; but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto 
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general as- 
sembly of the Church of the First Born which are written 
in heaven ; and to God the Judge of all, and to the 
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Medi- 
ator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprink- 
ling, which speaketh better things than the blood of 
Abel." 

But there is a still more important thought in relation 
to the truth of the Cross. When Jesus stood a prisoner at 
the bar of Rome, he made the following impressive, 
exulting avowal : " To this end was I born, and for this 
cause came I into the world, that / micrht hear witness 
unto the truth /" The Cross was designed to be the most 
compendious and vivid expression of all religious truth. It 
is the great witness for the truth of God. The testimony 
2* 



34 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

of Christ was the testimony of the Prince of martyrs. 
Nowhere else does truth utter her voice with such dis- 
tinctness, such fullness and emphasis. She spoke with 
power in the death of Prophets under the law ; in the 
death of Stephen, and in the triumphs of Paul, under the 
axe of Nero ; but as she never spake before, she speaks 
from Calvary. Were an angel to descend from heaven 
to become the teacher of men, his instructions might well 
be listened to with eagerness. But the Cross is the teacher 
of angels. It is the Deity himself bearing witness to his 
own doctrines. It is " the light of the world," and like 
the apocalyptic '^ angel standing in the sun," when "the 
whole earth was lightened with his glory." Every truth 
in the Bible brings us at last to tlte Cross, and the Cross 
carries us back to every truth in the Bible ; so that the 
sum and substance of all truth is most impressively 
proved, illustrated and enforced, by ^' Christ and him 
crucified." A right conception of what is included 
in the Cross, insures a right conception of every im- 
portant doctrine contained in the Bible. This is the 
hinge on which the whole system turns, and the great 
truth by which alone any and all truths can be under- 
stood. 

Several particulars here deserve to be attended to. No- 
where is the true character of God so fully revealed as in 
the Cross. The works of creation, with all their beauty 
and magnificence, make no such discoveries ; nor do the 
wondrous ways of Divine Providence, much as they are 
fitted to arrest the attention of men, and to show them 
that " verily there is a God that judge th in the earth." 
The revelations made to Moses and the Prophets, were 
very inferior to those made by Jesus Christ, on this great 
article of the Christian faith. God spake to them from 
the thick darkness ; the brightness of his glory was con- 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 35: 

cealed by the veil that covered the '^ most holy place ;" 
and not until the Saviour exclaimed, " It is finished," and 
gave up the ghost, was it ^' rent from the top to the bot- 
tom," and the holiness that is untarnished, the justice that 
is inflexible, the grace that is infinite, the mysterious 
wisdom, and amiable and awful sovereignty and 
goodness, appeared in forms that sinful men might look 
upon them and live. Here is not only a true and faith- 
ful, but a finished portrait of the Divine Nature ; one 
which, but for the Cross, never would have been known. 
No view of the Deity is more complete, even though 
enjoyed by the '' spirits of just men made perfect ;" for 
the clearest and brightest perceptions of that upper Sanc- 
tuary, are those in which he is seen through the Cross. 
We fix our eye on the Cross, and feel that '' It is a fear- 
ful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ;" 
while, as we dwell more intensely on that ineflfably tender 
scene, do we more satisfactorily discover, that, amid all 
the agitation of its frightful terrors, it is mainly designed 
to lead us to a reconciling God, and to impress upon our 
hearts a sense of his boundless love and mercy. 

One would suppose that men need no other instruction 
upon the great doctrine of human sinfulness, except their 
own experience and observation, and the melancholy 
light which is cast upon this truth by the pages of his- 
tory. The fact that men are sinners is indeed here 
taught with sufficient clearness ; but the intenseness of their 
moral depravity, and the infinite demerit of sin, are taught 
only by the Cross. The self-gratulatory and self-com- 
placent notions which they entertain of themselves and 
their fellows, the wretched subterfuges for their wicked- 
ness, and all their exulting self righteousness, disappear 
before the stern and melting rebuke of Calvary. '' If 
one died for all, then were all rfead."— ^' The Son of 



36 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.^' 
Who does not see that the mighty remedy indicates the 
malignant and deadly disease ? Nothing but the deepest 
and direst exigency could have demanded, or even justi- 
fied, such a sacrifice as the death of God's eternal Son. 
The sufferings of Christ are the most affecting testimony 
of man's unyielding, helpless depravity, in the universe. 
Nor do they indicate less clearly his true and proper ill- 
desert, than the fires that shall never be quenched. 

Nowhere are we taught how man can be just with God, 
save at the Cross. If there is one truth taught more 
emphatically by the Cross than another, it is that " Christ 
is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that 
believeth;" and that " our righteousness" is found only 
in his finished career of suffering obedience and obedient 
suffering. Justice and mercy, hatred of sin and the par- 
don of the sinner, the threatening of death and the 
promise of life, irreconcilable as they are by reason and 
conscience, meet and harmonize in the marvelous fact, 
that " He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in him." 

Would we know who those are whom God intends to 
save by this redemption? The Cross answers, " Every 
one that believeth :" — *' God hath set him forth as a pro- 
pitiation, through faith in his blood." Do we inquire, 
who have the divine warrant to believe ? This inquiry 
also the Cross answers ; and by the dignity of its great 
sufferer and the infinite merit of his sacrifice, by its 
unembarrassed invitations of mercy and its unqualified 
commands, gives the assurance that " there is enough 
and to spare," that '^ whosoever will may come," and 
that *' him that cometh shall in no wise be cast out." 
Would we know how man, benighted and fallen, and 
disabled by the sin that dwelleth in him, is ever to come 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 37 

to Christ? While the Cross imequivocally assures him, 
that " no man can come except the Father draw him," 
it at the same time teaches him to say, " I can do all 
things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Do we 
inquire, whom he will draw, and to wiiom this needed 
strength will be imparted ? The Cross answers, ''Seek 
and ye shall find." Do we still inquire. Who will seek 
and find the o-race that thus draws them? Here too liffht 
falls on the path of our inquiry, though it often shines 
in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth not. 
The Cross points far back to the eternal counsels of 
mercy — refers to those whose names are written in the 
Lamb's book of life as his stipulated reward ; who were 
"chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,'-' 
and who, thus predestinated, " were also called." And 
if the question be asked, if those who are thus called, 
will ever be allowed to draw back to perdition ? the reply 
of the Cross is, '' Whom he called them he also justified, 
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." The 
Cross is no game of chance, nor are the results of it left to 
the fickle purpose and heart of man. '' My Father that 
gave them me is greater than all, and none is able to 
pluck them out of my Father's hand." Is it into the 
coming eternity that we desire to look ? no other hands 
have so drawn aside the veil as those have done that were 
nailed to the accursed tree. Life and immortality are 
brought to light by him ; it is his voice which all that are 
in their graves shall hear and come forth ; before his bar 
of judgment shall they stand, and from his lips shall they 
receive their eternal destiny. It was not far from the Cross 
that he once said, ''In my Father's house are many 
mansions ; if it were not so I would have told you ;" 
and still nearer was it to that place of tears and blood 
that he made the affecting demand, " If these things be 



38 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS 

done in the green tree, what shall be done in the 
dry?" 

There is one subject on which the Cross speaks w^ith 
peculiar emphasis : I mean the radical and everlasting 
distinction between the righteous and the wicked. While 
it is the first and only refuge for the broken-hearted, it is 
the last refuge in the universe for the incorrigible ; and 
whil(3 in its fullness and efficacy there is no room for fear 
to the penitent, its fearful sanctions give no room for hope 
to the impenitent. If its flames of justice thus burned 
against God's well -beloved Son when he stood in the 
sinner's place — while on the one hand, the believer may 
confide in this complete satisfaction of its claims — on the 
other, with what inextinguishable fury will they burn 
against the man who disowns this substitution, and has 
nothing to protect him from the coming wrath ! 

It is interesting to observe how intimately the New 
Testament Scriptures especially connect all the truths of 
revealed religion with the Cross. Do they speak of the 
faith, it is '^ the faith in Christ ;" of the truth, it is '^ the 
truth in Christ;" of hope, it is "hope in Christ;" of 
the church, it is '' one body in Christ ;" of her triumphs, 
it is " triumph in Christ ;" of the covenant of God, it is 
" his covenant in Christ ;" of spiritual blessings, they are 
'^ spiritual blessings in Christ ;" of heavenly places, they 
are " heavenly places in Christ Jesus ;" of the promises, 
they are " yea and amen in Christ ;" of God, it is 
'' God in Christ." Wherever the Cross is known, the 
truth of God is known ; and wherever the Cross is 
unknown, or obscured, there the truth is unknown or 
obscured. The entire testimony of the Cross is harmo- 
nious, and shows that the truth is harmonious in all its 
parts. In some minds truth is found to exist in a confused 
and chaotic state. What such minds need is a clearer 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 39 

'' knowledge of Christ," and a careful comparison of all 
their attainments with this standard. Just as the Spirit 
of God brooded upon the face of the waters, and reduced 
the primitive chaos to this beautiful world, does the Cross 
of Christ give shape and form, place, proportion and 
beauty to the truth of God. Nor is it possible to discover, 
much less appreciate, the harmony and connection which 
run through all the essential doctrines of the Gospel, 
without a just estimate of the relation they sustain to the 
Cross. 

There is one more thought in relation to the truth of 
the Cross, and that is, it is the last revelation of God's 
will to man. The light here reached its zenith. It had 
been forty centuries in rising — gradually dissipating cloud 
after cloud — now concentrating and now diffusing its 
rays — now cheering some few selected spots and now 
throwing its twilight rays over a larger surface — but the 
Cross was its meridian altitude. Nor " shall the sun ever 
go down, nor the moon withdraw itself." As this is the 
last dispensation of the divine mercy, so is it the last the 
divine government will ever assume. There cannot be a 
better. '' There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." 
There cannot be a greater and there will not be a less. 
Under this form of government, with this redeeming God 
and Saviour at its head, the world will move forward 
to its close. The dynasty of Moses has passed away ; 
the sceptre of the Prophets, too, is laid low ; but they 
have been succeeded by *' a kingdom which cannot be 
moved," and under whose alone influence, he who died 
as a malefactor and rose as a Prince, will " rule and 
defend his church, and restrain and conquer all his and 
her enemies." The changing dispensations of the past 
have been superseded by this permanent, this last econ- 
omy. " Little children," says the beloved John, ** this 



40 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

is the last time.'^^ '' Now in the end of the world^^^ says 
another apostle, '' he hath appeared to put away sin by 
the sacrifice of himself." 

To my own mind, this is an affecting thought. To have 
in our hands the last communication of his truth which 
the God of love will ever make to lost men ; to have 
bequeathed to us the last Will and Testament of the 
expiring Mediator ; to have listened to his voice for the 
last time until he shall speak with the voice of the Arch- 
angel and the trump of God ; may well awaken emotions 
that cannot be uttered, and lead us to feel that all other 
interests and claims are insignificant compared with the 
interests of immortal truth and the claims of the Cross. 
This is the thought that fired the ardent mind of Paul, 
in one of the most glowing arguments he ever uttered : 
'' See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they 
escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much 
more shall not we escape if we refuse him that speaketh 
from heaven : whose voice then shook the earth ; but 
now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake 
not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, 
once more, signifieth the removing of those things that 
are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may 
REMAIN." He caught the thought from the lingering 
notes of the Prophet Haggai, who long before had sung, 
" For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, yet once, it is a little 
while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and 
the sea and the dry land, and the Desire of all nations 
shall come.^^ Now the time had arrived ; it was the last 
mutation, the final revolution in the divine government, 
until this world should pass away and the elements of 
which it is composed melt with fervent heat. Already 
had the voice shook the earth, when Sinai trembled, and 
Moses introduced the dispensation of the law. But there 



THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 41 

was to be yet one more voice, that should shake not 
the earth only, but also heaven. It was his "who in 
time past spake unto the fathers by the Prophets," and 
who, ^' in these last daijs, hath spoken to us by his Son.'' 
This was the great change, abolishing all former dispen- 
sations, itself never to be abolished, but to remain among 
the things ihsit caimot be shaken. The truth as disclosed 
from his Cross who was the desire of all nations, is firm as 
the ordinances of heaven. And now, if any say, " Lo, 
here is Christ, or lo, there !" believe them not. If false 
prophets appear, as they have done in ages past, and are 
appearing still, claiming new intercourse with heaven 
and new and further revelations ; if they cannot be re- 
claimed, they must be left to their own idiot dreams and 
mad delusions. However varied the successes of this dis- 
pensation of divine truth, and however great the inequali- 
ties that may mark its wondrous progress, there will be 
no other within the bounds of time. What is last in 
God's appointment may well be first in our estimation — 

" The last in nature's course ; the first in wisdom's thought," 

Men who are saved by this, need no greater, no other sal- 
vation ; men who are not saved by it, will find no greater, 
and require no less. " He that is holy shall be holy 
still ; and he that is filthy shall be filthy still." 

Such is the truth of the Cross. It must be believed, 
loved and obeyed. It has no false coloring, no mere- 
tricious garb. If you doubt its importance, go and learn 
it from Gethsemane and Calvary. If you find it hard to 
be understood, seek light at the feet of its great Author. It 
has no cold and philosophical abstractions, and no lifeless 
morality. It is not the mysticism of theory, nor the sen- 
timentalism of feeling, but the truth and love of God 
coming down upon the soul, and fitting it for Heaven. 



42 THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS. 

Human theories live for a day ; the truth of God abideth 
forever. Men gaze at human theories as they gaze at a 
meteor when it flashes across the heavens, but leaves 
no trace of the path it describes ; while the light of the 
Cross is never extinguished, and the mind in contempla- 
ting it never becomes weary. It has indeed forbidding 
features ; but it may not be forgotten that those 
very features which are so repulsive to men who are dead 
in sin, constitute its most powerful attractions to those 
whose hearts are right with God. 

Allow me then affectionately to inquire at the bosom 
of the reader, if he loves the truth of the Cross ? It is 
not a vain thing, for it is for your life. " Life and death, 
the blessing and the curse," are yours, as you fall in, 
or fall out, with the truth as it is in Jesus. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CROSS AN EFFECTIVE PROPITIATION FOR SIN. 

Men must have a religion ; and if they reject the 
religion of the Bible, they will devise one for themselves. 
What the religion is which they thus devise is not a 
matter of theory. Facts tell us what it is. The entire 
narrative of Paganism, both ancient and modern, shows 
that the -religion of the Pagan world is a religion of ter- 
ror^ and that its most important rites and institutions are 
sustained by its appeals to a guilty conscience. There 
is that in every human bosom, in virtue of which, every 
deed of wickedness visits the perpetrator with more or 
less of the bitterness of compunction. Benighted and 
erring as it is, conscience everywhere summons man be- 
fore her bar as a culprit ; she tries him, and finds him 
guilty. The religion of conscience, therefore, is a self- 
condemning religion, and its altars are altars of blood. 
For ages upon ages, hlood has been flowing through the 
temples of heathen idolatry. From the seven nations of 
Canaan that were cut off by Joshua, to the more bright 
periods of Assyrian and Egyptian history — from refined 
Greece and Rome, through the successive ages of Gallic, 
German and Saxon history, down to the modern nations 
of the East, men have erected altars to the Sun, to the 
moon, to the stars ; to demons, and hero-gods ; to Mo- 
loch, Ashtaroth and Baalim ; to Juno, to Bacchus, to 



44 THE CROSS AN EFFECTIVE 

Diana, to Woden ; whose worship consisted in the most 
horrid acts of cruelty and blood. The practice of shed- 
ding human blood on the altars of idol gods has not been 
peculiar to any one age of the world. Even at the 
present day, the car of Juggernaut, and the Pagoda 
of our own western savages, are stained with the blood 
of men. This is a remarkable, as well as melancholy 
fact in the history of our race. Men have no natural in- 
stincts to gratify in offering human sacrifices; it is a 
moral instinct which leads them to it ; it is with the view 
of averting the displeasure of the offended Deity. It is 
conscience, clamorous for reparation, and demanding 
amends for human wickedness. Conscience requires 
obedience, or the penalty of disobedience ; nor is it in 
the power of man to dissolve the wrathful bond. Sin 
deserves punishment, because it is sin. The connection 
between crime and suffering is founded in the moral na- 
ture of man, and is absolutely indestructible. Conscience 
establishes it by her immutable sentence that the trans- 
gressor is '' worthy of death ;" reason confirms it by her 
immutable convictions that God is just ; while the his- 
tory of Divine Providence recognizes it in the perdition 
of the most exalted race who " kept not their first estate," 
and in the misery and woes, the sighing, agony and 
death which reign in a world, originally filled only with 
expressions of the Creator's goodness. 

The demand is not therefore one of minor importance, 
which is made by the Prophet, " Wherewithal shall I 
come before the Lord, or bow myself before the High 
God !" It is no easy matter to persuade a man who 
*' is fallen by his iniquity," and who is deeply sensible 
that he deserves to perish, that there is a refuge from 
the coming wrath. He may discover some probabilities 
of pardon ; he may indulge some flickering hopes : but 



PEOriTIATION FOR SIN. 45 

these occasional flashes from the dark sky do not compose 
his fears. Nor are they tranquilized, nor can they be, 
until the storm has spent its fury, and he sees the rain- 
bow painted on the cloud. Such a man, more especially 
if, in the days of his thoughtlessness and vanity, he has 
had loose notions of the divine justice and presumptuous 
expectations from the divine mercy, is much more dis- 
posed to believe that God cannot be just and pardon, 
than that he would be unjust to punish and destroy. To 
stand on a strong and immovable foundation, he must 
be placed in the position where justice has no claims 
upon him, and where the penalty of the law is satisfied, 
because all his sins are atoned for. This is the only 
solace for the wounded conscience ; this is the refuge the 
sinner needs ; it is the refuge furnished by the Cross, 
because the Cross furnishes the only efiective propitiation 
for his sins. 

Modern Jews, the ancient heretics who maintained 
that Christ was a mere man, Mahometans, Socinians 
and Infidels, are, so far as my knowledge extends, the 
only sects that have ever affirmed that God forgives sin 
without regard to an atonement. There is no intimation 
of pardon in the Old Testament Scriptures, except 
through a piacular sacrifice. The great truth recognized 
in the bloody sacrifices throughout the patriarchal age, 
was the doctrine of expiation. Under the Mosaic dis- 
pensation, the offerings appointed by God, as an atone- 
ment for sin, consisted of animals that were slain, and 
whose blood was offered on their altars. ^' The life of 
the flesh is in the Mood : I have given it to you upon the 
altar ^ to make an atonement for your souls ; for it is the 
blood that niaketh an atonement for the soul.^^ Nothing 
is more obvious from the Jewish ritual, than that it was 
the design of God to teach his ancient church the indis- 



46 THE cnoss an effective 

pensable necessity of an atonement in order to procure 
the forgiveness of sin. The entire history of the Jewish 
nation, from their deliverance out of Egyj3t to the final 
overthroviT of their civil and ecclesiastical polity, is writ- 
ten in the blood of their sacrifices — repeated every 
morning and evening, on every Sabbath and at every 
new moon, and with emphatic solemnity on the annual 
recurrence of the great " day of atonement ; " while for 
sins that could not be pardoned, but were punished with 
death, there was no appointed expiation. If we look 
into the New Testament, we find this great truth more 
distinctly, and, if possible, more abundantly revealed. 
The sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, himself the 
only personage in human nature against whom law and 
justice, either of earth or heaven, could prefer no claim, 
cannot be accounted for under the righteous government 
of God, on any other principle, than that he was '' cut 
off not for himself." Never would he have uttered that 
heart-rending and unanswered cry in Gethsemane, 
" Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me," nor 
ever have bowed his head on the Cross, were there any 
other than " redemption through his blood." If there 
had been " a law that could have given life, verily right- 
eousness should have been by the law." It '' became 
him by whom are all things, and for whom are all things, 
to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through 
suflfering." This is heaven's high method of mercy. 
" Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission." 
Nor are the reasons for this decision unrevealed. 
" Clouds and darkness are round about him, but justice 
and judgment are the habitation of his throne.^^ The 
throne of God is built and stands firm only upon the prin- 
ciples of righteousness and judgment. They are the 
place, the habitation, the basis of his government. I do 



PROPITIATION FOR SIN, 47 

not see how men can question the necessity of an atone- 
ment, who are themselves the friends of justice ; who 
celebrate its praises as many a celestial anthem cele- 
brates them ; who feel towards it as God himself feels. 
Under the imperfect administration of human laws, jus- 
tice may be attempered with mercy. It should be so 
attempered, not only because the administration is im- 
perfect, but because it is written, '' Vengeance belongeth 
unto me; I will repay, saith the Lord." Human laws, 
in their best form, are professedly and always founded 
upon considerations of expediency, and never graduate 
the punishment of the offender by the ascertained and exact 
measure of his ill-desert. Justice, simple justice ^ calls for 
merited punishment ; and in the divine government it is 
determined by the ill-desert of the transgressor. In men, 
it may be a flexible principle, and lead to a vacillating 
policy ; but not in God. It is an essential perfection of 
the Divine Being. It is his nature. If there had been 
no creatures for him to govern, or no transgressors of his 
law to punish, he would still have been a Being of un- 
changeable, invincible justice. It belongs to his nature 
as truly as his spirituality, or his goodness, or his power. 
" Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, 
nor shall evil dwell with thee." It were just as impossi- 
ble for him to forgive sin in the way of sovereignty, or 
by any arrangement of mere expediency and general 
benevolence, and without regard to the claims of equity 
and moral principle, as it were for him to be unjust. In 
pardoning the guilty, his prerogatives as the sovereign 
are merged in his obligations as the Lawgiver. Justice 
demands the punishment of the transgressor, and forever 
stands in the way of his exercising pardon as a mere 
sovereign. Nor is this a fancied difficulty, nor one which 
any strength or ardor of love may leap over, or break 



48 THE CROSS AN EFFECTIVE 

through. What he once views as sinful, he always 
views as sinful ; what he once views as deserving pun- 
ishment, he always views as deserving punishment ; and 
what he is once disposed to punish, he is always disposed 
to punish. He has proclaimed this disposition in his 
law ; nor is it a parade of authority, or an empty de- 
claration, nor is it any the worse for being violated or 
executed. Nor is there any reason for waiving the execu- 
tion of it, unless that reason be found in a satisfactory 
atonement. If there be good and solid reasons why the 
penalty should be inflicted where no atonement exists, 
there are the same reasons why an atonement is called 
for if the penalty be remitted. God was not bound to 
forgive ; it was not necessary for him to forgive ; but if 
he does gratify his love in acts of pardon, he owes to 
himself, and to that everlasting difference between right 
and wrong which he himself has established, to do it in 
a way that satisfies and supports his immutable justice. 

The necessity for the sacrifice of the Cross, therefore, 
is absolute. It is a necessity that is felt in all the 
stages of Christian experience ; and where it is not felt, 
there is, there can be, no Christianity. Unbelief in 
Christ as a Saviour is a necessary part of unbelief in 
God as a Judge. Men despise his mercy, because they 
do not respect his justice. One of the first lessons which 
the anxious sinner learns, is to feel his need of Christ. 
His conscience finds no relief, nor can it ever be dis- 
burdened of its mighty woes, save at the Cross. I have 
never known a man awakened to a sense of his sin and 
danger by the Spirit of God, however loose his religious 
training, and however unscriptural his previous views o^ 
truth, who had not the most unqualified conviction that 
the Cross was his only hiding place, and who had not the 
utmost horror of all his former refuges of lies. The most 



PROPITIATION FOR SLN. ^ 

Stout-hearted sinner needs but to be under this divine 
teaching, in order to feel that that sacred victim bleed- 
ing on Calvary, and he alone, can keep him from despair. 

It is not, as some have supposed, an improper inquiry 
to be instituded, How do the sufferings and death of the 
Cross constitute an effective propitiation for sin? Atone- 
ment is an expiation, or an expiatory equivalent. It 
is that which makes amends for an offence, so that the 
offender may be pardoned. It is a reparation which is 
made by doing or suffering that which is received as a 
satisfaction for the injury committed. By the Christian 
atonement, I understand that satisfaction to divine jus^ 
tice made by the sufferings and death of Christy in the 
room and stead of sinners^ in virtue of which pardoning 
mercy is secured to all who believe the Gospel. It may 
be desirable to present a brief view of the different parts 
of this general position. 

The propitiation of which we are speaking, consists in 
the sufferings and death of Christ. His instructions and 
his example do not form the matter of his atonement ; 
nor ought his prophetic and priestly offices to be thus 
confounded, The pardon of sin is not procured except 
by his sufferings, by the influence of his death, and that 
simply by its expiatory power. To award him no other 
honor than that he came as a divine teacher, is to put 
him upon a level with his own apostles ; to take the 
crown from his head ; to have no part in the song, 
" Unto him that redeemed us unto God by his bloodJ^^ 
Whoever undertakes to atone for the sins of men must 
suffer. His arrangement is with penalty. As the au- 
thority of the law lies in its penalty, so the emphasis of 
the atonement lies in the sufferings of the Mediator. 
And hence the prominence which the sacred writers 
give to the Cross. Hence it is, too, that the trembling 
3 



50 THE CROSS AN EFFECTIVE 

conscience is always directed by the Spirit of God to the 
blood of the guiltless victim. The steady though slowly- 
burning flame that is lighted up in the bosom of the 
transgressor, is extinguished only by that fountain of sor- 
rows. It is upon his sacerdotal office, upon the altar 
where he bled, upon the ignominy and woes of the last 
scene and the last sighs, that Christian hope rests all her 
expectations. A suffering Saviour is the glory of the 
Gospel, and involves truths which, if once subverted, the 
Christian structure is in ruins. Nor do I regard the 
thought as a trivial one, that the sufferings of Christ 
were truly and properly penal. They were penal, 
and not disciplinary. Nor were they simply declaratory 
and instructive; for if this were their main design, I 
see not why they might not have been spared, nor why 
all the solemn lessons they read, are not read from the 
fiery walls of the prison where men and angels suffer to 
show that God is holy, and sin is vile. It is doubtless 
true that the sufferer did not endure the penalty, nor 
was the sentence of the law to the very letter executed 
upon him. Yet were his sufferings penal, because they 
were inflicted by justice, and imposed in execution of a 
legal sentence. They were executed in the form of jus- 
tice ; and, though not the penalty the law incurred, were 
accepted in the place of it, and as a full equivalent. 

In order to constitute the sufferings of Christ an effect- 
ive propitiation for sin, they were endured i7i the room and 
stead of those who themselves deserve the curse. They 
were truly and properly vicarious. This is a truth not 
free from difficulties ; and had there been no revelation 
from heaven, we should be slow in believing it. But 
since God has revealed it, we receive it with adoring thank- 
fulness, and can only express our lasting admiration of 
the unsearchable riches of his wisdom and mercj^ which it 



PROPITIATION FOR SIN. 51 

discloses. If we look back to the covenant with Adam, 
we find '' the figure," the nucleus, the germ of this truth, 
in the fact that he was the representative and substitute 
of his race. " By the ofience of one, judgment came 
upon all men to condemnation." The great doctrine of 
substitution was thus early revealed, which is perfected 
in the sufferings of the '^ Word made flesh." If man 
fell in the person of his representative, why may not a 
representative, in carrying into effect that same economy 
of grace, suffer for him ? Both these divine arrange- 
ments stand or fall together. We do not mean, by sub- 
stitution, a transfer of the moral character of the trans- 
gressor to the representative ; for this is impossible. 
The sins of men did not and could not make Christ a 
sinner. Nor is there anything in this substitution that 
removes personal criminality from the transgressor ; for 
no substitution, no personal punishment even, can ever 
make the guilty innocent. A vicarious sacrifice does 
not diminish or palliate the criminality of sin, much 
less take it away. It assumes the sinner's obligation 
to punishment. The substitution of Christ imports that 
the sins of the transgressor are set down to his account, 
and so imputed to him that he endures the punishment 
of them in the transgressor's place. He stands in law 
just where the sinner stands, and takes upon himself its 
curse. The penal debt of the believer is thus canceled, 
and his account with the law settled by the sufferings of 
his surety. Such was most certainly the import of the 
sacrifices under the Levitical law. They were substi- 
tuted for the offerer ; the offerer deserved to die, and the 
innocent victim stood in his. place. The whole transac- 
tion indicated that the punishment due to the offender 
was transferred to the appointed sacrifice ; and its great 
design was a significant prefiguration of that great act of 



52 THE CROSS AN EFFECTIVE 

divine justice which imposed upon the Lamb of God sins 
not his own. ''Surely," says the Prophet, '' he hath 
borne our griefs ; he hath carried our sorrows. The 
Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us alL" The 
memorable words of the Saviour to his disciples, at the 
institution of the Supper, were, '' This is my blood which 
was shed for you.^^ " He suffered," says the Apostle, 
'' the just for the unjust ;^^ he ''bore our sins in his 
own body on the tree ;" he was " made a curse for us.^^ 

The manner in which the death of Christ is connected 
with the forgiveness of sins, is therefore clearly revealed. 
The weakest and the strongest believer, the most holy 
and the most imperfect child of God, have remission of 
sins only because his sufferings come in place of theirs. 
If the Scriptures give any definite information on this 
great subject, a subject on which of all others they are 
full and explicit, they teach that the undeserved suffer- 
ings of the Cross come in the place of the deserved suf- 
ferings of all those who by faith make this sacrifice their 
own, and that they are thus regarded and accepted by 
the great Lawgiver. I have yet to learn the only founda- 
tion of a sinner's hope, if it be not in the penal suffering 
and death of Christ, in the room and stead of the guilty, 
and as an accepted satisfaction to the justice of God. 

I have said that the Cross is an effective propitiation 
for sin ; and by this is meant that there is that in the 
death of Christ which possesses this expiatory power. 
The substitution of the innocent for the guilty is a singu- 
lar fact in the history of the divine government. It is no 
ordinary procedure. Nothing like it has ever existed. 
" It seems to stand by itself, an insulated department of 
Divine Providence." It originated with the offended 
Lawgiver, and was sanctioned in the counsels of his 
own profound and unsearchable wisdom. It was no in 



PROPITIATION FOR SIN. 53 

justice to the Sufferer of Calvary, because, on his part, it 
was perfectly voluntary ; the relation he bore both to 
Deity and humunity eminently qualified him for this 
arduous work ; while the infinite excellence of his divine 
character imparted a consideration, a value to his intense 
and unequaled sufferings, that rendered them an all-suf- 
ficient and effective propitiation " through faith in his 
blood." The sentence of the law is, " The soul that 
sinneth shall diej^' and the voice of the Archangel, the 
sign of the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, 
the irrevocable sentence and the lake of fire, proclaim 
what that death shall be. And it is no more ihsin justice, 
and the sinner's due. The transgressor is bound in jus- 
tice to suffer it, and the Lawgiver is bound in justice to 
inflict it. It is by thus punishing the sinner according to 
his ill-desert, that the claims of eternal justice are as- 
serted ; the foundation of the eternal throne stands firm, 
and the assurance made sure, that the "wages of sin is 
death." The sufferings of Christ constitute an effective 
propitiation for sin by securing these high and important 
ends. The divine Lawgiver himself being judge, there 
is the same justice in the death of his Son that were 
found in executing the penalty of the law with rigid im- 
partiality upon the person of the transgressor. When 
Zaleucas, the Italian lawgiver, enacted the law that 
adultery should be punished with blindness, and his own 
son was the first transgressor, he honored the law by 
putting out one of the eyes of his son, and one of his 
own. Imperfect as the resemblance is, this was a sort 
of atonement, because it showed that rather than the 
law should remain unexecuted, the lawgiver himself 
would share the penalty with the offender. The selected 
substitute in this great redemption was not one in whom 
the Eternal Father had no interest, and to whom he felt 



54 THE CROSS AN EFFECTIVE 

no attachment. It was not an enemy, it was no alien 
to the court of heaven, nor was it the loftiest and most 
favored of adoring- angels, that descended from the high 
and holy place to direct his way towards Calvary and the 
curse. It was God, with and like himself, distinctly 
comprehending the greatness and bitterness of the work 
he had undertaken, '^ traveling in the greatness of his 
strength," and in his own agonies furnishing an ex- 
emplification of the claims of punitive justice, such as 
was never seen before, and will never be repeated. We 
have already told the story of the Cross ; but how little 
do we know of that bitter cup, conscious as the Mighty 
Sufferer was of his majesty as God, and his meanness as 
a worm, emptied of all his glory, unsupported and alone 
in his tremendous conflict with the powers of darkness ! 
The law he had undertaken to satisfy showed him no 
mercy ; and in vain do we search the annals of the uni- 
verse for justice if it be not here. We look to the Cross, 
and feel that God is just. Nor can we resist the impres- 
sion that the same justice which awoke against the Son, 
if directed against the guilty, would kindle a flame that 
never could be quenched. In its efl&cacy in accomplish- 
ing the great ends of law, of justice, the propitiation of 
the Cross is not surpassed by the literal execution of the 
penalty of the law. Does the law show that God is 
just? so does the Cross. Does the law proclaim the sin- 
ner's ill desert 1 so does the Cross. Is the law the ap- 
pointed guardian and protector of the divine government 1 
so is the Cross. Is the law the unsleeping preserver of 
the order and security of the universe ? so is the Cross. 
Does the sacredness of the divine character, and its un- 
compromising rectitude, and its consuming jealousy, and 
its stainless honor, shine in all fearful radiance in the law ? 
so do they shine in equal, in superior splendor in the Cross. 



PROPITLITION FOR SIN. 55 

This then is the one of the attractions of the Cross. 
Here is the religion of conscience^ because there is here 
an effective propitiation for sin. Conscience, which, 
with so much inquietude, looks elsewhere in vain, here 
finds the repose it seeks for. This oppressive burden, 
these inward convictions of guilt, are relieved by the 
assurance that '' the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from 
all sin." That blood of the everlasting covenant, while 
it makes the conscience more sensitive and tender, at the 
same tune renders it tranquil, because it is the unfailing 
token of peace with God. As a sinner who deserves to 
die, and uttering the messages of mercy to my fellows in 
sin and guilt, I love to dwell on this great characteristic 
of the Cross, "a just God and a Saviour." It discloses 
a '' new era in the government of God, and a new crea- 
tion to the hopes of men." It unfolds that deep design, 
the reconciliation of justice and mercy. The eternal 
throne henceforth rests on this mountain of the covenant ; 
and though justice still guards it by her even balances 
and her flaming sword, mercy is its highest adornment. 
Parted at the primeval apostac}^, mercy and justice meet 
at the cross, there to mingle their exultations in the par- 
don of the guilty through the atonement of the guiltless. 

I know not what interest the reader feels in this view 
of the Cross of Christ. The great atonement is a work 
that is finished, and the scene now lies on the page of 
history. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
ness, even so has the Son of Man been lifted up. But 
it is not like the history of other facts in which we had 
nothing to do, and in which we ourselves did not bear a 
part. No living man has the warrant thus to sever him- 
self from the Cross of Jesus ; nor can he do it, but by 
his own voluntary and cherished unbelief. Like the 
cloud in the wilderness, the Cross has a dark and a bright. 



56 THE CROSS AN EFFECTIVE 

side ; but its dark side is towards its enemies. If ye Avould 
not be numbered with its enemies, go up and lay your 
hand on the head of its guiltless sufferer. And though 
you were the malefactor at his side, he would hear the 
cry, " Lord remember me, when thou comest into thy 
kingdom !" 

The Cross should banish despair. Is it not enough 
that " Christ has died?" Is it not enough that the be- 
liever, instead of paying the penalty of the law himself, 
may present the sufferings of Christ? Justice asks no 
more than what faith thus offers. Does conscience, with 
her voice of thunder, still proclaim that you deserve to 
die 1 There is One who died for you. The Cross says 
to the believer, that if there is One who died for him, in 
that very death he himself died. The law is satisfied 
with the substitution. " Christ is the ejid of the law to 
every one that believeth." '' There is now no condem- 
nation to them that are in Christ Jesus.'' Faith may be 
confident here. Nay, she may triumph, and hold aloft 
her deed of absolution sealed with blood. The Cross 
should prevail over unbelief and despair. It should 
enkindle hopes that never wither, and are full of 
immortality. Shame on this weakness ! *'Who shall 
separate you from the love of Christ?" 

*' Brightness of the Father's glory, 
Shall thy praise unuttered lie ? 
Fly, my tongue, such guilty silence. 
Sing the Lord who came to die. 



"Did the angels sing thy coming ? 
Did the shepherds learn their lays? 
Shame would cover me, ungrateful. 
Should my tongue refuse to praise. 



PROPITIATION FOR SIN 57 

" From the highest throne in glory. 
To the cross of deepest woe — 
All to ransom guilty captives — 
Flow my praise, forever flow. 

•* Go, return, immortal Saviour — 
Leave thy footstool, take thy crown ; 
Thence return and reign forever — 
Be the glory all thine own V* 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

It is a truth universally received among Christians, 
that there is no other propitiation for sin except that 
offered by the Son of God on the Cross. The Scriptures 
dwell on this truth with such frequency and force, that 
it cannot be considered in any other light than as one of 
the primary truths of the Christian revelation. They in- 
struct us that " there is no other name given under heaven 
whereby we must be saved but the name of Christ ;" 
that " no other foundation can any man lay, than that is 
laid, which is Jesus Christ ;" and that, this propitiation 
rejected, " there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." 
There can be no doubt that in instances not a few, the 
want of clear, impressive and strong views of this one 
truth lies at the foundation of great doctrinal and practi- 
cal errors. The same high importance belongs to the 
priestly ofiice of Christ, that belongs to his prophetic and 
regal offices. It is not more true that his Spirit is the 
only infallible Teacher, and that no human traditions, 
and no decisions of men, may supersede his unerring in- 
structions — that he himself is the sole and only King m 
Zion, and that none may share with him the honors and 
prerogatives of his throne — than that he is the only 
propitiation — himself the altar — himself the Priest — him- 



THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 59 

self tlie sacrifice — himself the '^author and finisher" of 
the whole work. 

It is easy to conceive of a less atonement than this 
stupendous offering". It might have been the offering of 
some mere man, exalted above his fellows, and pure and 
stainless ; it might have been some exalted and holy- 
seraph ; it might have been some super- angelic nature ; 
or it might have been some family, or tribe, or province, 
who should have been appointed and given their consent 
to die in the place of the fallen. Either of these would 
have been a sacrifice infinitely inferior to that which was 
made by '' God manifest in the flesh." Such are the 
greatness and glory of the second Person in the ever- 
blessed and adorable Godhead, that none hesitate to be- 
lieve that it had been unspeakably desirable that he 
should have been spared the degradation of our nature, 
and the agonies of the Cross, if there could have been 
any less sacrifice. Had there been any other thus ' ' mighty 
to save," by none would such a substitute have been 
hailed with greater joy, or more intense delight, than the 
Eternal Father himself, who appointed his own Son to 
this fearful service. Looking over the universe he had 
made, to see who, among them all, was competent thus to 
bring salvation to a lost race, ^'he saw that there was no 
man, and wondered that there was no intercessor ; there- 
fore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteous- 
ness sustained him." The Saviour himself would not 
have sought and acccepted this high trust, could it have 
been conducted to safe and honorable issues by another; 
nor was it except in view of the inefficacy of all other 
sacrifices, that he said, " Lo, I come ; in the volume of 
the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O 
God !" It had been impious in another to have proposed 
himself for such a service. No other than the uncreated 



60 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION 

One had " power to lay down his life and take it again ;" 
no other had any worthiness or merit beyond that which 
he himself owed to the law which man had violated ; no 
other had the rank and dignity that could impart the 
adequate consideration and value to his sacrifice ; no 
other could have borne the mighty burden which om- 
nipotent justice must have laid upon him for the expia- 
tion of human guilt. If God, in human nature, himself 
sunk under it, what created intelligence was adequate to 
the burden? The redemption of our race had been 
hopeless and utterly impossible by any less sacrifice. 
To look for such a sacrifice only leaves the appalling 
question unanswered, ''How can man be just with God ?" 
Humanity and Deity, therefore, personally united in the 
great Immanuel, constituted the sacrifice. What can give 
worth to his death, render him a complete and all-sufli- 
cient Saviour, effectively reconcile the claims of justice and 
mercy, and spread the " glory that excelleth '' over the 
great work of his redemption ; if not God in human 
nature voluntarily submitting to an ignominious and 
painful death, in order to satisfy the justice of his own 
law, and thus reveal "the grace that bringeth salvation ?" 
This is a point too plain for argument, and is merely 
submitted to our inspection. Is not this a marvelous 
procedure? Can created minds, or the uncreated mind, 
conceive of a greater, or more effective propitiation 1 Can 
unsearchable wisdom furnish one more wise ; infinite 
love one more touching ; omnipotent power one more 
difficult to be accomplished ; inflexible justice one Avhich 
it is more sure to sanction ; or heavenly grace one by 
which it can secure more or greater triumphs ? What 
greater purposes can be accomplished by an expiatory 
sacrifice than are accomplished by the Creator thus at- 
taching himself to a creature ; power thus uniting itself 



THE CROSS THE ONLY rROriTlATION ^1 

with weakness ; heaven with earth ; God with man : 
encountering that storm of wrath which discharged itself 
on the Cross, for the long thought of and settled purpose 
of bearing the penalty incurred by apostate man ? 

If then there may not be a less propitiation for sin than 
that which Christ has made, and cannot be a greater, 
there is but this one sacrifice. Let us then consider 
somewhat more at length the practical importance of 
this truth. It is a truth which enters deeply into the 
whole theory and practice of a pure Christianity. Reli- 
gion in the world, religion in the heart, lives or dies with 
the one great expiation for sin. It is by this one offering that 
men are saved, in opposition to the notion that they are 
saved without any propitiation at all. This great article of 
the Christian faith meets with no more subtil or rigorous 
opposition than from the unchristian thought that this re- 
demption is needless. The foolishness of God is wiser than 
the reasoning pride of men. Without the presumption of 
deciding what the God only wise may or may not per- 
form, it is enough that he has taught us, that although 
ever willing and ready to forgive, he does so in a way 
that best comports with the honored claims of justice. 
It is impossible, with the utmost stretch of human inge- 
nuity, to evade the force of the instructions of the Bible 
on this subject. With those to whom this part of our 
subject is applicable, the question is not whether there 
be one propitiation for sin, or many, but whether there 
be forgiveness with God as an arbitrary act of mercy, 
without any satisfaction to justice. 

If God be true, and his decisions meet a ready response 
in the claims of conscience, one complete and all-suffi- 
cient sacrifice there must be, else there is no foundation 
for human hope. Men who reject the death of Christ 
as the propitiation for human guilt, adopt another religion 



Q2 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

than that revealed in the Gospel. They have not the 
religion of heaven ; they love not its truths ; they par- 
take not of the spirit of its song ; they have no supreme 
honors for its redeeming God and King. How the man 
can be kept from sinking into despair, who deliberately 
and pertinaciously disbelieves the one sacrifice of the 
Lamb of God, is more than God has revealed. To do 
this is to deny the ^' Lord that bought him, and bring 
upon himself swift destruction." The only terms of 
reconciliation between God and man were fulfilled on the 
Cross. That God will be merciful to sinners in some 
way which has no respect to the great Mediator, is a 
most delusive and ruinous notion, if the God of Heaven 
be just. The sympathies of heaven and earth may be 
enlisted for the transgressor of the divine law ; but if 
there be no propitiation for his offences, if he has not 
this one hope, this one name of Jesus to rest upon, he 
cannot be restored to the favor of an offended God. If 
the death of Christ as a true and proper sacrifice for sin 
be taken from the Bible, of all books is that book of God 
the most unintelligible, and the most full of perplexity. 
The sacred pages teach us that " we have forgiveness 
of sins through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ;" 
nor is there a descendant of fallen Adam who, in any 
age of the world, or in any clime has found peace to the 
troubled conscience, hope to the sinking heart, else- 
where. 

The one offering of Christ is also the only hope of 
men in distinction from the ma?iy sacrifices of the pagan 
world. There are few expressions of the perfect impo- 
tence of the human mind to devise for itself a satisfactory 
religion more significant than those combined efforts of a 
darkened understanding and an erring conscience, by 
which men in pagan lands have endeavored to reinstate 



THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. ^3 

themselves in the favor of God, and restore those peace- 
ful and happy communications with him which have 
been disturbed and broken off by sin. It would seem as 
though the soul of man had not lost all impressions of 
what it once was ; that there still clings to it the instinct- 
ive and indestructible thought of its high origin and its 
ultimate destination 5 and that there is still to be found 
in it a confused, and yet in some sort an irrepressible, 
seeking after God. It is a wanderer, an exile; yet in 
seeking to find its way back to its native skies, it only 
plunges deeper into the dark wilderness. From the 
brutal savage who prostrates himself at the feet of some 
hideous idol, to the more cultivated nations who worship 
the sun ; from those primitive ages which offered to the 
Creator the fruits of their harvest fields, to those more 
degraded nations whose worship consists in acts of ob- 
scenity and blood ; all give evidence that rather than 
live and die without any religion, they choose one that 
is ever so false and absurd. The great principle of hu- 
man nature on which natural religion is founded would 
seem to be conscious guilt, and the consequent fear of the 
divine displeasure. Costly and cruel sacrifices ever have 
been, and are now, heaped upon the altars of the pagan 
world, and their shrines are sprinkled with the blood and 
stained with the gore of men. To all these unnatural, in- 
effectual and sinful sacrifices, the Scriptures oppose tlie 
one divinely authorized and effectual sacrifice of the great 
Redeemer. This one offering meets every demand that 
can be made upon it by the intelligence, the guilt, the fear, 
the misery, the instinctive cravings of man as an immor- 
tal being. These ten thousand other sacrifices do but add 
guilt to guilt, and agony to agony ; and wliile they do 
violence to every natural feeling of the human heart, give 
neither inward comfort nor outward reformation. Before 



64 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

the Cross the fables of Paganism disappear; incerti- 
tude is banished by the certainties of a true faith. The 
corruptions of men are reformed, their spirit is regenera- 
ted, by this one offering. Human reason finds an object 
here worthy of its inspection, and the more she studies 
it the more does she find employment for her largest in- 
telligence — with more and still more gratified attachments 
does she exclaim, '^ 0, the depth of the riches, both of 
the wisdom and the knowledge of God !" The heart, 
everywhere else sterile and empty, is here filled with the 
love and the fullness of God ; and the wearied conscience, 
which elsewhere finds not a place for the sole of her foot 
to rest upon, here finds the ark of mercy. All other reli- 
gions are the devices of men — this the device of heaven's 
unsearchable wisdom and love. It stands one and alone. 
All other religions are lost and swallowed up m the full- 
ness of its light, the plenitude of its pardons, the power 
of its holiness. Truth, pardon, and holiness, the three 
things so essential to the happiness of man, and which 
natural religion, restive and disappointed, has so long 
sought in vain, are found in this one propitiation of the 
God-man Mediator, himself alone filling the mighty 
chasm sin has made between man and God. 

This one offering also supersedes the multiplied and re - 
peated sacrifices of the Jewish ritual. The Jewish ritual 
was a burdensome religion. The first seven chapters of 
Leviticus are employed in giving a general account of 
the different kinds of sacrifices which God commanded to 
be offered ; and these constituted by no means the whole 
of the offerings under that grevious and costly economy. 
Yet was it a ritual to which the Jews had been for so many 
centuries accustomed — one which was attended with so 
much outward splendor, and to which they were so 
strongly wedded — that it was then, and is still, worn and 



THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 65 

dilapidatad as it is, the great obstacle to the introduction 
and prevalence of Christianity among that bigoted peo- 
ple. It was their great snare to apostacy after they be- 
came Christians ; and it was to admonish them against 
this besetting danger — besetting them wherever they 
were scattered abroad — that important portions of the 
New Testament were written. 

The sacrijfices of the Hebrew economy accomplished 
the design for which they were intended ; but they 
were never intended to be real atonements for sin. There 
Avere great and obvious defects in them which were reme- 
died only by the high and exalted character of the great 
High Priest of the Christian dispensation, and the per- 
fection and efficacy of his sacrifice. No angelic minis- 
tration could conduct the Church of God to her heavenly 
inheritance ; angels were but the servants of Christ, their 
true and only Lord. Nor could Moses ; who was him- 
self but a menial in God's house, compared with Christ 
the Son and heir. Nor could Aaron, with his long suc- 
cession of priests and costly and bloody sacrifices. They 
were all imperfect and sinning men, " compassed with 
infirmity," and, by " reason thereof, ought, as for the 
people so also for themselves, to offer for sins." Christ 
was " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, 
who needeth not daily, as those High Priests, to offer up 
sacrifice first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the 
people ; for this he did once when he offered up himself.'^ 
They were ''many priests," because they were " not suf- 
fered to continue by reason of death ;" but Christ, 
" because he continueth forever, hath an unchangeable 
priesthood, and is able to save to the uttermost all that 
come unto God by him," in all places, through all 
times, under all dispensations. 

The sacrifices under the Jewish dispensation were but 



6g THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

prefigurative of the great Christian sacrifice ; the " sha- 
dow of good things to come;" the outline of the great 
reality ; the speechless portrait of the wondrous original ; 
the sculptured, cold and marble statuary of the living 
person. They did not profess to remove guilt from the 
conscience, nor impurity from the heart; for " then they 
would not have ceased to be ofiTered, because that the 
worshipers once purged should have had no more con- 
science of sins." " In those sacrifices there is a remem- 
brance again of sins every year." They were fitted to 
remind men of their ill-desert and the penalty due to 
their transgressions. They did no more than this ; 
" for it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats 
should take away sin." The sacrifices of the Jewish 
ritual must be often repeated, while the sacrifice of Christ, 
offered '' once for all,^' accomplished the great object 
for which it was offered. " This man, after he had 
offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right 
hand of God." His work of propitiation was completed 
then, " For by one offering, he hath forever prefected 
them that are sanctified." This was a most important 
lesson to be inculcated on the minds of the doubting and 
inconstant Jews. Their own Prophets had predicted a 
sacrifice which should effect the total abolition of their 
own sacrifices ; that should '' finish the transgression, 
make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity, 
and bring in everlasting righteousness ;" but this people 
were " slow of heart to believe what the Prophets had 
written." Would that they were not still slow of heart 
to believe both their own Prophets and their own Mes- 
siah ! They are still " beloved for the Father's sake," 
and are yet to be gathered in; and when that day 
arrives and they " come in with the fullness of the Gen 



THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 57 

tiles," nothing will affect them more deeply than their 
scornful rejection of David's Son and Lord. They 
will look on him whom they "have pierced, and mourn;" 
and will see that his propititiation is the only foun- 
tain set open for sin and uncleanness. We indeed, as 
professed believers in the Christian faith, may suppose 
that this contrast between the many and repeated sacri- 
fices of the Jewish ritual, and the one sacrifice of the 
Lord Jesus, has no relevancy to our character and con- 
dition. But it deserves to be engraved on our hearts as 
well as theirs. It involves so many great truths and 
principles that are essential to Christianity, that Gentiles 
as well as Jews are concerned in it as one of the most 
cogent and convincing arguments for an humble and 
exclusive reliance on the one Mediator and his one 
sacrifice. 

*'No bleeding bird, nor bleeding beast, 
Nor hyssop branch, nor sprinkling priest. 
Nor running brook, nor flood, nor sea, 
Can wash the dismal stain away. 

*' Jesus, my God, thy blood alone 
Hath power sufficient to atone ; 
Thy blood can make me white as snow. 
No Jewish types could cleanse me so." 

The sacrifice of Christ is also the one and only sacri- 
fice in that it rebukes all the vain efforts of a self-righteous 
religion. No truth in the Gospel is more plainly revealed 
than that to every one who will accept the blessings of 
the Gospel, they are given freely. God freely gave his 
Son to die ; his Son freely offered up himself a sacrifice to 
unto God for us ; of his rich and free grace he offers all 
the blessings of his great salvation without money and 
without price ; of grace, infinitely free, though sovereign 



68 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

and discriminating, the Holy Spirit gives repentance and 
remission of sins. It is all gift and grace from beginning 
to end. '' The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of 
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." This 
is the great message of the Gospel. '' This is the testi- 
mony of God, that he hath given us eternal life, and this 
life is in his Son." Men have nothing to do in procuring, 
or purchasing it ; nothing to do in deserving it ; nothing 
to do in qualifying themselves to receive it. They have 
nothing to do, and nothing to give for it. '' Who hath 
first given to the Lord, and it shall be recompensed to him 
again ; for of him, and through him, and to him, are all 
things." Men are not givers, but receivers ; not pur- 
chasers and claimants, but beggars. Instead of having 
any merit of their own, they are eternally indebted to the 
divine justice, and have nothing to pay. They are 
^' wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked ;" nothing relieves their poverty and wretched- 
ness, but they are the rather perpetually accumulating 
and increasing, until they are made happy in the Saviour's 
blessedness, wealthy in his riches, wise in his wisdom, and 
clothed with the pure robe of his righteousness, that the 
shame of their nakedness do not appear. Yet is there a 
strong tendency in the human mind, and an almost 
indomitable desire in men, to put themselves upon a series 
of self-sufficient efforts, to work their own way to heaven, 
'' going about to establish their own righteousness, and 
not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God." 
The spirit of self-righteousness usually expresses itself 
either by performances which are believed to be available 
for the sinner's salvation, or by those efforts by which 
men hope to make themselves so much better as to become 
the fit objects of divine mercy. The moral sinner who 
hopes to receive the favor of God by his morality, while 



THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION ^9 

he may profess to depend on Christ alone, depends on 
him in words only, and not in heart. The religious form- 
alist, who hopes to secm*e the divine favor by his 
prayers and religious services, while he professes his 
dependence on Christ alone, is at heart a Pharisee, and 
rejects a free salvation. The anxious and inquiring sinner 
who confesses that he is unworthy, and feels that if he 
were not so great a sinner he might find mercy, is secretly 
cleaving to his own righteousness, and only in another 
form cherishing the error, that if he were but a better 
man he might have hope. Now the simple truth, clearly 
seen and truly felt, that there is no other sacrifice for sin 
except that offered by the great Mediator ; that " he died 
unto sin once ;" that he " hath once suffered for us, the 
just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God ;" 
and that no other ground of acceptance is required, or is 
necessary, not only cuts up these self-righteous hopes root 
and branch, but shows their absurdity and wickedness. 
It shows their absurdity : for if salvation '' be by grace, 
then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more 
grace ;" and ^' if it be of works, then it is no more grace, 
otherwise work is no more work." It shows their wicked- 
ness : for it evinces their hostility to God's free salvation, 
their reluctance to be under obligation to Christ alone, 
and their preference to their OAvn wretched performances 
over the great work of Jesus the Lord. It shows the 
secret Simony that is in the hearts of men, in that they 
endeavor to stipulate for that which God freely bestows ; 
to procure by their own well-doing what nothing but the 
blood of his Son could procure ; and like Simon, vainly 
think "the gift of God may be purchased with money." 
The language of Christ's one sacrifice is, that " it is not by 
works of righteousness which men have done, but accord- 
ing to his great mercy, that they are saved." Those who 



70 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

hope to enter into life in any other way than by Christ 
alone, be they ever so moral, and ever so punctual in their 
outward observance of religious institutions, will have a 
place in that same world of mourning which is prepared 
for the ungodly. There is no other way of salvation 
for the best sinner than God has provided for the worst 
sinner. Men are always deceived in their true character, 
as well as in their hopes, when they look away from 
Christ to themselves. " I know, by sad experience," 
sa5^s that wonderful man, George Whitfield, " what it is 
to be lulled asleep with a false peace. Long was I lulled 
asleep. Long did I think myself a Christian, when I 
knew nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ. I used to fast 
twice a week. I used to pray sometimes nine times a day. 
I used to receive the Sacrament constantly every Lord's 
day. And yet I knew nothing of Jesus Christ in my 
heart. I knew not I must be a new creature. I knew 
nothing of inward religion in my soul." This then is 
the counsel of the Mediator of' the new covenant, and of 
that great, that solitary transaction, which veiled the 
heavens in mourning. '' Look unto me and be ye 
saved;" '^ Come unto me, all ye that are weary and 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest !" 

The one offered sacrifice of Christ is likewise a truth of 
great importance, as condemning the error of those who 
flatter themselves that there ivill he some method of mercy 
devised hereafter for the final restoration of those who die 
in their sins. Those who are ensnared by this fatal error, 
adopt it on different grounds. But whatever their dif- 
ferent theories may be, no truth in the Bible is so fatal to 
their delusions as the truth that it is " by 07ie offering 
that God hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." 
There are various views of the Cross that are death to 
the hope that in the decisions of another world no differ- 



THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 7] 

ence will be made between the righteous and the wicked; 
or that if there be a difference at first, all will at last, and 
in some unknown period of the boundless future, be 
gathered into the Divine Kingdom. But the truth we are 
considering is, of all others, the most absolutly withering 
to this vain hope, this soul-destroying delusion. The error 
proceeds upon a false estimate of the great work of re- 
demption, and of the great difiiculty of saving men at all. 
Nothing short of the most profound and unsearchable 
wisdom could have devised any method of redemption. 
When the wicked shall stand before the Great Judge at 
the last day, they will be condemned for having rejected 
it. If, at any period thereafter, '' God would pardon and 
save them, he must do it either on account of a greater 
or less atonement than that which Christ has made, or 
without any atonement at all. But it is certain that no 
greater atonement can be made than that which Christ 
has made, and therefore God cannot pardon and save 
them on account of an atonement greater than the 
atonement of Christ. There is no reason to believe 
that God will ever pardon and save them on account 
of a less atonement than the atonement of Christ, 
after he has condemned them to eternal destruction 
for rejecting that very atonement. And if he will 
not pardon and save them on account of a less atonement 
than the atonement of Christ, it cannot be supposed 
that he will pardon and save them without any atone- 
ment at all.'' These considerations would absolutely 
shut up every door of hope to those who finally reject 
the Gospel, but for one most wondrous hypothesis ; and 
that is, that the death of Christ itself may possibly be 
hereafter repeated^ and those tremendous scenes of Beth- 
lehem, Gethsemane and Calvary be acted over agam. 
This bold hypothesis presents a subject of very solemn 



72 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

and awful consideration. It must strike every mind that 
in originally deciding upon the death of Christ as the 
selected method of mercy, it was a method altogether 
peculiar, and above the researches of created wisdom. 
" If the principle of substitution ^^^ says the distin- 
guished Robert Hall, ''be at all admitted in the opera- 
tion of criminal law, it is too obvious to require proof that 
it should be introduced very sparingly, only on very rare 
occasions, and never be allowed to subside into a settled 
course. It requires some great crisis to justify its intro- 
duction — some extraordinary combination of difficulties, 
obstructing the natural course of justice. It requires that 
while the letter of the law is dispensed with, its spirit be 
fully adhered to ; so that instead of weakening the mo- 
tives to obedience, it shall present a salutary monition, 
a moral and edifying spectacle. Such a method of pro- 
cedure must be of rare occurrence, and to this circum- 
stance, whenever it does occur, its utility must, in a great 
measure, be ascribed. The substitution of Christ in the 
room of a guilty race receives all the advantage as an 
impressive spectacle, which it is possible to derive from 
this circumstance. He once suffered from the foundation 
of the world ; nor have we the least reason to suppose 
any similar transaction has occurred on the theatre of 
the universe, or will ever occur again in the annals of 
eternity. It stands amid the lapse of ages and the waste 
of worlds, a single and solitary monument." In confirma 
tion of these thoughts, we may dwell on the following 
instructive passages of revealed truth : '' Knowing that 
Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more ; death 
hath no more dominion over him : for in that he died, he 
died unto sin oncc^ but in that lie liveth, he liveth unto 
God." ''Now once^ in the end of the world, hath he put 
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is ap- 



THE CROSS THE O^LY PROPITIATION. 73 

pointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, 
so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ; 
and unto them that look for him, he shall appear the 
second time without making himself a sin-offerings unto 
salvation." ''By the which will we are sanctified 
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for 
alL^^ " This Man, after he had offered one sacrifice for 
sin^ forever sat down on the right hand of God." These 
are truths of deep and solemn import. The question is 
decided, that Christ dieth no more. Oh, who is there that 
desires that he should travel that bloody path again, and 
a second time drink of that cup? Nor would it be of any 
avail to the incorrigible despisers of his salvation, if he 
should again bow his head and give up the ghost. They 
would despise him still. Their day of grace was continued 
long enough to try their character, and ascertain their de- 
cision ; nor was it cut short, nor were they consigned to 
their own place, until their decision was irrevocably formed 
to remain his enemies, and the fact well ascertained that 
no further space for repentance would avail them. There 
is nothing in the flames of hell to subdue an obdurate and 
malignant heart, but everything to excite and irritate and 
confirm its rebellion. Were the blessed Saviour again to 
disrobe and empty himself, and descend to that fearful 
world, not only would they crucify him afresh, but scoff at 
his offered mercy, and trample it under their feet. '' No, 
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins !" but a '' cer- 
tain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation 
that shall devour the adversaries." Never will Christ die 
again ; and never will there be any hope for those who 
account the blood of the covenant wherewith he was 
sanctified an unholy thing. How dreadful is the condition 
of the man who is beyond the reach of Christ! Prize, 
O pri^p this great redemption while it is called to-day. 
4 



74 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPmATIGN. 

To these thoughts we add one more. The death of Christ 
is the only sacrifice at once annihilating the uncommand- 
ed sacrifices still offered to God by a human priesthood. 
Of the many forms in which the disposition of men to 
magnify the importance of external ordinances over a 
spiritual, heart-religion, expresses itself, none is more per- 
nicious than that monstrous system which is held in the 
Church of Rome, and which teaches that the bread and 
wine in the Lord's Supper are changed into the substance 
of Christ's body and blood, and when presented by the 
priest to God, is offered as a true and living sacrifice, and 
when thus offered, is effectual to procure the pardon of sin. 
Some portions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
while they may not fully believe the doctrine of transub- 
stantiation, have fallen into the same error of regarding 
the Lord's Supper as a proper and real sacrifice. These 
misguided persons believe that as often as this festival is 
celebrated, the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is virtu- 
ally repeated and solemnly offered to God in order to 
accomplish their salvation. If the instructions of the New 
Testament may be relied on, every other priesthood is 
done away and absorbed in his, who, prompted by 
love to the souls of men, left the bosom of his Father, 
and offered up himself a sacrifice to God in the room 
and place of guilty men. He alone is qualified for this 
high office ; he alone is called to it of God ; he alone is 
accepted in his great priestly character. He is ordained 
a Priest forever, '' not after the law of a carnal com- 
mandment," but after ^' the power of an endless life." 
There is no warrant for representing the Christian min- 
istry a priesthood ; nor may they arrogate to themselves 
this office without encroaching on the prerogative of the 
great High Priest of the Christian profession, and ex- 
posing themselves to the angry rebuke which confounded 



THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 75 

and consumed the sons of Aaron, because they ap- 
proached the altar unbidden, and " offered strange fire 
which the Lord had not commanded." The scriptural 
definition of a priest is, one who is " ordained for men in 
things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts 
and sacrifices for sin.^' Since the abolition of the Jew- 
ish economy and the death of Christ, no living man, no 
being in the universe, sustains this office, save the Son 
who is consecrated a Priest forevermore. The priests 
under the law had successors, because they were dying 
men : our great High Priest has no successor, because 
he himself "ever liveth." And because every other 
priesthood is done away and absorbed in Christ's, every 
other sacrifice is done away and absorbed in his. The 
pretence of repeating it, while it is one of a system 
of errors of frightful enormity, is evidence of great moral 
blindness, if not rash and reckless impiety. God would 
have men feel their constant dependence on this one 
sacrifice, once offered. They need no other. It is by 
the power of this finished propitiation, that they are de- 
livered from sin and hell, and adopted as his returning 
children into his divine family : " These are they," said 
one of the Elders about the throne to John in the Reve- 
lation, " which came out of great tribulation, and have 
washed their robes, and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb." They follow the Lamb wherever he 
goeth ; and the song they sing is, " Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and honor, and 
glory, and blessing !" Take heed, that " no man beguile 
you from the simplicity that is in Christ." He has pro- 
cured your reconciliation to God, by devoting him- 
self to the death of the Cross. Here is the strength of 
your faith, and the vividness of your joy. Spiritual 
enjoyments must necessarily decline and wither, when- 



76 THE CROSS THE ONLY PROPITIATION. 

ever you lose sight of this " one offering." Resources 
of blessedness are here, never to be exhausted. No con- 
siderations of unworthiness or ill-desert should obscure 
your views of this great sacrifice. That God is willing 
to pardon, to sanctify, to guide, to save, we know £is- 
suredly when we look at the Cross. It is only " the 
Lamb that is in the midst of the throne who shall feed 
you, and shall lead you to living fountains of waters ; 
and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 

There are good reasons in the Divine Mind for all 
those expressions of his holy and inscrutable sovereignty 
which are made both in his works of creation, provi- 
dence, and redemption. Nothing is gained, but every- 
thing is in danger of being lost, by quarreling with the 
great facts which take place under the government of 
the '' God only wise." What is difficult to us, is plain 
to him ; what to us is dark, to him is enveloped with 
light — pure, unmingled light. " God is light, and in 
him is no darkness at all." Fallen men are made to 
differ from fallen angels, without any apparent reason ; 
one man is made to differ from another, when no human 
intellect is able to assign the reason why '' one is taken 
and another is left." There is a melancholy equality in 
the moral character of men. They are all born under 
the same broken covenant, inherit the same corrupt na- 
ture, and are alike exposed to the wrath and curse of 
God, both in this life and that which is to come. Nor 
do any of them so differ in the outward acts and expres- 
sions of their wickedness, but that the best of them de- 
serves to perish, and if he is saved must attribute his 
salvation to the unspeakable riches and sovereignty of 
infinite grace. 

The divine purposes are all accomplished. If there 
were no other method of learning what they are, we 
may read a part of them at least in the history of the 



78 THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 

past. Nor have we any more reason to quarrel with 
them, than we have with the facts recorded on the pages 
of history. When that last day shall come on which 
the entire history of ou,r race, as it respects the present 
world, shall be completed and recited, it will be but the 
rehearsal of the executed purposes of God. It will then be 
seen that all men are not saved. ^' When the Son of Man 
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with 
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and 
before him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall 
separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his 
sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his 
right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the 
king say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world ; while to them on his left 
hand, he shall say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. 
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, 
but the righteous into life eternal." In our Lord's expo- 
sition of the parable of the tares, he says, ''As therefore, 
the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire, so shall it be 
in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send 
forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his king- 
dom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, 
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire ; there shall 
be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Nothing therefore 
is more clear from the Scriptures, than that it is not the 
actual purpose of the Cross to save all mankind. 

On the other hand, the fact is not questioned, that a 
fart of mankind are saved. This fact, also, is but the 
counterpart of the divine purpose ; it is, it was, it ever 
has been, the divine purpose to save them. Nor can there 
be any question as to the way in which this purpose is 



THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 79 

carried into effect. ^^ There is no other name given un- 
der heaven among men, by which they must be saved," 
except the name of Christ. '' No other foundation can 
any man lay, than that is laid." The method of salva- 
tion is the Cross. Other objects the Cross secures ; but 
its great object is the redemption of a part of mankind — 
'' a peculiar people, that they should show forth the 
praises of him who hath called them out of darkness 
into his marvelous light." 

It deserves consideration whether sufficient prominence 
is given in our own thoughts, and in our relative views 
of the truth of God, to this great purpose of his redeem- 
ing mercy. I confess, when I contemplate the Cross, and 
would fain commend its manifold and wondrous attrac- 
tions, this purpose of redeeming mercy seems to me to be 
the great and master purpose of the Divine Mind. It is 
the purpose which has the greatest extent and comprehen- 
siveness ; which reaches from everlasting to everlasting ; 
which is fortified and confirmed by every other purpose ; 
which acquires additional beauty, dignity and importance, 
the more it is considered ; and which, instead of being 
revealed with a cautious reserve, courts publicity, and 
fearlessly stands out as the principal and selected means 
by which the Infinite One glorifies his great name. To 
deny or disprove this purpose, would be virtually to 
deny or disprove the whole Gospel. The great first prin- 
ciple of the Gospel is, that it is the actual purpose of God 
to save a great multitude, which no man can number, by 
the death of his Son. Take away this purpose, and the 
Gospel has no foundation ; God would never have been 
manifest in the flesh, nor should we ever have heard 
of his effective propitiation for sin. It was indeed a 
mighty movement in heaven to show mercy to a part of 
our guilty and wretched race. God has not told us how 



go THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 

many there are ; but he has told us that they are nume- 
rous enough to give the Seed of the Woman the most 
exulting triumph over his malignant adversary, and to 
satisfy him for all the humiliation, and shame, and 
agonies of his incarnation and death. Men may com- 
plain that the persons comprised in it are not more in 
number ; but God, v^^hose wisdom and goodness are as 
much above the wisdom and goodness of men as the 
heavens are above the earth, sees no reason for making 
it greater, or in any way amending or altering his origi- 
nal design. The reason wh}^ he does not alter it, is that 
it was formed in unerring wisdom, and that to change it 
in any way would be unwise. 

In tracing this purpose to its origin, we find it in the 
love of God — the goodness, the love of God, '^ having 
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus 
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his 
wilL^^ It was not for any good qualities in some, rather 
than in others. Manasseh, and Saul, and the Corinthian 
converts, were sufficiently vile. If God had waited for 
this, he had waited long and in vain. It was not for any 
foreseen faith and holiness ; for these are his gifts, and 
the very things which the Cross secures. All spiritual 
blessings come to the saved through Christ, *' according 
as he hath chosen them in him that they should he holy." 
His love is antecedent to ours. '^ We love him because 
he first loved us." " Ye have not chosen me, but I have 
chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and 
bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." 

This actual purpose of mercy by the Cross lay in the 
Divine Mind, in all its parts and relations, and in all the 
means by which it is accomplished, before the foundation 
of the world. It was a covenant arrangement between 
the three sacred Persons of the ever-blessed and adorable 



THE ACTUAL PURPOS-^ OF THE CROSS. gl 

Trinity. So far as the Cross is concerned, it was a cove- 
nant between the Father and the Son. Hence the blood 
of the Cross is spoken of as the " blood of the covenant," 
and *' the blood of the everlasting covenant." There 
was an agreement between the Father and the Son, as 
the representative of his people, in which the Father 
promised, upon condition of the Son's mediatorial satis- 
faction and obedience, that he should be rewarded by the 
sanctification and salvation of his people. This covenant 
Christ accepted; and having fulfilled the terms of it, 
became entitled to his reward. Such is the depraved 
character of men, that something more was necessary, in 
order to secure their salvation, than that the legal impe- 
diments to the exercise of mercy should be removed, and 
the offer of salvation made to them. Such is their disaf- 
fection and enmity to the Cross, that no love of God in 
giving his Son to die, no compassion and tenderness of 
the crucified Son, no offers of salvation through his blood, 
no promises, no threatenings, no reason, no conscience, 
can prevail with them to accept the offered salvation. 
Such is the power and depth of human apostacy, that 
every avenue is closed against the calls of the divine 
mercy, and not one of all the race is found, who, if left 
to himself, will fall in with the gracious overture. If the 
Cross, therefore, merely throws open the door of mercy — 
if it is merely accessible to all, and announces to all 
repentance and remission of sins — Christ is dead in vain ; 
the mercy revealed to save, actually saves none ; there has 
been a waste of atoning blood ; the heavens have bowed; 
the eternal Son has expired, not merely for a doubtful, 
but a desperate enterprise. The covenant of redemption 
was designed to forestall this evil, and give effect to the 
great propitiation in the hearts of men, and thus make 
the actual purpose of salvation inseparable from the 
4* 



32 THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 

Cross itself. It is in reference to this purpose that the 
Saviour says, *' I lay down my life for the sheep :" " All 
that the Father giveth me shall come to me ;" that the 
Apostle speaks of the ^'church of God purchased by his own 
blood;" and the Prophet declares, ''For the transgres- 
sion of my people was he stricken." There is sovereignty 
in the Cross. '' He hath mercy on whom he will have 
mercy." '' Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
sight!" It is no proof that the counsels of Heaven's 
mercy are not good, because they are unfathomable by 
mortals. Of one thing we may be satisfied, from what 
we know of the divine goodness and the all-sufficiency 
of the atonement, that the purpose of saving mercy is 
thus definite, not through want of love in God or merit 
in the death of his Son ; but for reasons which, however 
unknown to us, no atonement could reach, and no sub- 
stituted sufferer could answer. 

It is a glorious purpose thus to reward the ever-blessed 
and suffering Son. Yes, it is a glorious and most joyous 
purpose. Think of it, and let your " soul magnify the 
Lord, and your spirit rejoice in God in your Saviour !" 
*' Because he poured out his soul unto death, and was 
numbered with the transgressors, and bare the sin of 
many, and made intercession for the transgressors, there- 
fore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he 
shall divide the spoil with the strong." The spoiler had 
ruined the race but for One mightier than he, and 
who shall " see of the travail of his soul and be satis- 
fied." God's unspeakable gift to man is to be traced up 
to this glorious purpose. 

In speaking of the actual purpose of God to save, and 
to save through the death of his Son, we are not to over- 
look the fact that the means by which this purpose is 
accomplished form a part of the purpose itself. The pur 



THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 33 

pose is not only carried into effect by these means, but 
the means are essential to the purpose, and form a part of 
it. God not only purposed to save, but through whom, 
ofi what terms, by what instrumentality, under what 
circumstances, at what time ; and every one of these 
means constitutes a link in the chain, so intimately in- 
woven with the purpose, that without it there is no pur- 
pose to save, and can be none. If men are saved by the 
Cross, they must become acquainted with the truth of 
the Cross, and be taught the method of salvation which 
it reveals. '' How shall they believe in him of whom 
they have not heard V There is nothing in the death 
of Christ to save men who are ignorant of it ; because 
the divine purpose to save, is to save only through the 
knowledge of the Gospel. The purpose itself is thus a 
restricted purpose, and limited to Christian lands, and to 
those in Christian lands who become acquainted with 
him whom God has sent. The sovereignty of God in the 
dispensations of his grace, is here exhibited in facts which 
may not be questioned. There are entire nations whom 
he has given over to a reprobate mind, and left under the 
veil of ignorance and error. Men are born in millions 
during ages of darkness over which they had no control^ 
and in lands of darkness where their birth and residence 
are determined by a providence that is above them. 
They dwell in the darkness and shadow of death ; and 
because they have not the means of salvation, they 
cannot have its hopes. They are not guilty of rejecting 
what God does not offer them : this foul sin of Christian 
lands does not rest upon them. But they have all sinned 
and come short of the glory of God, and therefore inherit 
the wages of sin, without the knowledge of the redeem- 
ing Saviour. The most loose and indefinite views of the 
atonement would recoil from the conclusion tliat there 



g4 THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 

is any purpose of mercy at all towards nations who re 
main ignorant of the Gospel. The actual purpose of 
God to save, is also a purpose that all those who partake 
of this salvation must not only become acquainted with 
the Gospel, but at heart believe it. '^ He that belie veth 
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be 
damned." The death of Christ does, indeed, open the 
door of hope ; but it does not save until it is received 
and confided in. 

This all-sufficient redemption is limited by the terms 
of it ; and be they who they may, all those who do not 
repent and believe the Gospel, have no lot and no part 
m this matter. The Cross was never designed to give 
eternal life to the impenitent and unbelieving — to men 
who would not acknowledge their offence and thankfully 
accept its mercy on the terms on which it is offered. 
Christ has died, and through his death God can now 
*^be just and the justifier of him that believeth.^^ This is 
the sum and substance of his atonement : it is not greater 
than this, and knows no other mercy. There cannot 
in the nature of the case be an effective propitiation for 
incorrigible impenitence and unbelief. A man may be 
a great sinner : he may put off his repentance to the bed 
of sickness and the agonies of a dying hour; but if at 
the eleventh hour of human life he truly repents and 
believes the Gospel, he shall find that all his sins are 
atoned for by the blood of the Lamb. But if his im- 
penitence and unbelief continue until his day of grace 
and space for repentance are expired; if even the ap- 
proaching scenes of death and eternity fail to awaken 
him to a view of his lost condition and lead him to the 
Saviour; if he dies as he has lived, the enemy of God 
and his Christ; is there any cover for his offences, any 
satisfaction for his crimes, any atonement for his final 



THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. g5 

impenitence'? An affirmative answer to this question 
would present to my mind the most palpable absurdity. 
Is there any ransom for such a man ; any accepted surety 
for him ', or any satisfaction, any equivalent, for his debt 
to the divine justice which that surety has rendered'? 
Has the burden of that man's guilt ever rested upon an- 
other, or does it forever rest on his own soul '? Was Jesus 
Christ delivered for his offences, or has he in any way 
wrought out a deliverance for him from the place of tor- 
ment ? I suggest these thoughts the more freely, because, 
however familiar they may have been to others, it is not 
until within a few years they have been presented to my 
own mind. The proposition is perfectly intelligible, that 
the death of Christ is such an atonement as justifies the 
Holy Lawgiver in pardoning every one that believeth; and 
in this truth I see that the atonement is limited by the 
very terms on which it is proposed, and it is limited by 
nothing else. It is just as unlimited as it can he; God 
himself cannot make it more so, because it is not within 
the compass either of a natural or a moral possibility, to 
save those who persevere in rejecting it. God's purpose, 
God's justice, and man's unbelief, all unite in limiting 
it to true believers. The proposition is also equally intel- 
ligible, that the death of Christ is such a satisfaction to 
divine justice as justifies the Holy Lawgiver in pardoning 
the incorrigible, impenitent and unbelieving. But what an 
utter prostration were this of the law and government of 
God ! Then were Christ indeed the "minister of sin," 
his death the constituted indemnity for persevering rebel- 
lion, and his Holy Cross, instead of being the great 
reformer, were the great corrupter of the world. The 
former of these propositions is the beautiful view given of 
the propitiation of the Son of God by the Scriptures ; 
honorable to God, hallowed in its character and influence, 



36 THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 

and safe for man. The latter is nothing more nor less 
than the grossest Universalism, striking at the root of all 
experimental religion, confounding all distinctions be- 
tween right and wrong, and bearing the signature of the 
'^ father of lies." Nor, as the subject presents itself to 
my own mind, is there any mid- way position between 
this particular redemption, and the indiscriminate salva- 
tion of all mankind. Men are the creatures of habit, 
and it is a very difficult thing for them to repel the force 
of early instructions. The phrase " particular redemp- 
tion" may have been incautiously illustrated by some 
writers ; but does it not express the great truth which 
Paul utters when he says, " Whom God hath set forth to 
be a propitiation, through faith in his bloody to declare his 
righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of 
him that believeth?^^ To look for any more ample 
redemption is only flying from the iron weapon and rush- 
ing on the bow of steel. It is worthy of remark that 
when the sacred writers treat of the death of Christ, and 
even when they advert to it, it is for the most part with 
the cautious and important restriction which has been 
specified. " Christ is the end of the law for righteous- 
ness" — to whom? Not to all mankind, but ^' to every 
one that believeth,''^ It were as much at war with justice 
to pardon men in impenitence and unbelief through the 
atonement, as it were to pardon the penitent without any 
atonement at all. To '' every one that believeth," the 
end of justice is as effectually secured by his death, as 
it would be by the punishment of the believer him- 
self. But it is only to " every one that belie veth " that 
it is thus secured, while it remains for others to fulfil this 
high end by suffering the penalty in their own persons, 
because in relation to them it has not been secured by the 
death of Christ. The Cross no more comes in the place 



THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. §7 

of faith, than faith comes in the place of the Cross ; or, 
in other word s, the Cross does not come in place of pen- 
alty, where faith is not exercised. It has its limitations, 
and they are wise. A comprehensiveness beyond this, 
and such as precludes the necessity of accepting it, is 
incompatible with its design and object, and would sub- 
vert the end it is intended to promote. 

The actual purpose of the Cross, therefore, is one 
which is limited to a part of mankind. God spared not 
the angels, but stooped to men; and the same sove- 
reignty which led him to pass by angels, has led him to 
include in his purpose of mercy but a portion of the 
fallen race of Adam. This is a purpose altogether irre- 
spective of worth or worthiness in its objects, formed 
before the foundation of the world, and carried into 
effect notwithstanding their ill-desert ; a purpose of mere 
grace, itself securing the faith which is the revealed con- 
dition of salvation, in compliance with the ancient grant 
to his Son of a seed to serve him for having poured out 
his sor.l unto death and been numbered with the trans- 
gressors. 

Do you murmur at this giacious purpose 1 If you do 
so, what are its offensive characteristics ? Are you dis- 
satisfied that the God of love should have formed any 
purpose of mercy at all ? Would your own character 
and condition have been the better if he had never had 
these thoughts of love ? Or does it offend you that you 
yourself may not be comprised in the number of his 
chosen people ? How do you know this 1 He has given 
you being in a world of hope ; he has blessed you with 
the light of Christian lands ; he has made you the offer 
of salvation ; he has led you to reflection and prayer ; he 
has sent his Spirit to strive with you ; and are these the 
usual indications of a reprobate mind ? Oh, how cruel, 



•88 THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS. 

to sever yourself from his love, by the lurking and 
thankless suspicion that he has not predestinated you to 
the adoption of a child ! But what if it is even as you 
are willing to suspect ? Has he not a right to do what he 
will with his own ? or have you nothing within your own 
bosom that can induce your sympathy with the joys of 
those who are the favored objects of his love ? "Is thine 
eye evil because he is good ?" Or does it offend you 
that his grace is so free, and that personal merit has no 
concern in the great transaction by which the sinner is 
brought home to God ? One would think this were the 
very salvation you need, and that your heart would leap 
for joy at the thought that you, who have nothing to give, 
may have it without money and without price ; that you, 
who find it so impossible to make atonement for your 
own offences, may take refuge in the atonement made 
by another ; and that in despair of the effort to make 
yourself better before you obtain mercy, you would go to 
Christ just as you are, that you may become better. Or 
does it offend you that there is no pardon for the guilty, 
without the previous satisfaction to justice which Christ 
has made on the Cross ? Is it so that you would fain be 
saved at the expense of justice, and that this wonderful 
decree of Heaven, that substituted the innocent for the 
guilty, and delivered his own stainless Son to be spit 
upon, and buffeted, and put to death, that justice might 
be honored and you might live, has no form nor come 
liness in your eyes ? Oh, will you not rather open your 
heart to the glories of this redemption, and then, in all 
humility and ardor, ascribe " salvation to him w^ho 
sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb !" 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

It is one of the plainest truths in the Bible, that 
there is no man, be he who he may, but has a right to 
repair to the Cross for salvation. Among other reasons, 
the method of redemption was devised and accomplished 
on purpose to secure him this right, this divine Avarrant, 
to go as a lost sinner to Jesus Christ for pardon and eter- 
nal life. If he does not do so, he sets himself in opposi- 
tion to this gracious design, and does what in him lies to 
countervail and defeat this wondrous work of God. God 
c^Ters you eternal life ; and who shall say that yoii have 
not a right to accept what God offers ? God commands 
you to receive his Son ; and have you not a right to do 
what God commands you ? 

The Scriptures do not confine the influence of the Cross 
to the salvation of a peculiar people. This is its great 
object, its saving purpose, but this is not all it accom- 
plishes. In one view, and that no unimportant one, the 
aspect of the Redeemer's mediation is universal. It relates 
to the moral government of God and the sinful condition 
of men. It is the fruit of that divine compassion, that 
infinite benevolence, that looks with equal favor upon all 
mankind. It is a provision for the ungodly. It is the 
medium of universal access to the Father, and whosoever 
will may come unto God by Jesus Christ. While he 



90 THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

became surety to the Father that he would rescue a chosen 
people from the pollution and condemnation of sin, and 
present them all without spot before the presence of his 
glory at the last day, he does by this very act introduce 
the reign of mercy over our entire world. Besides being 
a personal satisfaction for the sins of all who believe on 
him, his death was a great moral expedient, which lays 
the basis for all those equitable dispensations of mercy by 
which the threatened stroke of justice is averted and the 
door of hope is opened to the race. It introduces a new 
era in the moral government of God ; so that it is no 
longer a government of pure law and justice, but a 
government of mercy lodged in the hands of the Media- 
tor. The object of this gracious government is to arrest 
the attention of men as sinners ; to arrest it to the affect- 
ing fact of their fallen and guilty condition, and to the 
divine method for their recovery ; to justify God in these 
proclamations of pardon, and to hold out the strongest 
considerations to induce men everywhere to comply with 
the offers and claims of the Gospel. 

Nothing justifies such a dispensation of mercy but the 
all-sufficient propitiation of the Son, and the infinite 
merits of that great sacrifice. The sole basis on which 
such a government rests is the obedience unto death of 
the great Mediator, furnishing, as it does, not only a per- 
fect satisfaction to divine justice for the sins of all those 
who were given to Christ as his own purchased reward, 
but a public declaration of the righteousness of God in 
the forgiveness of sins to every possible extent, if men 
will but repent and believe the Gospel. The Cross is 
now accessible to all. No man now perishes because 
there is not forgiveness with God ; no man now perishes 
because his fate was involved in the issue of the first apos- 
tacy ; for under this new constitution he is put on trial for 



THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 91 

himself, and must decide for himself whether he will 
or will not have the gracious Mediator to rule over him. 
This view of the Cross, I am sensible, differs in some 
respects from views that are sometimes met with. Is not. 
that an incautious representation of the work of the Re- 
deemer, which represents it as a sort of commercial trans- 
action, in which such an amount of suffering was paid, 
and no more, as is sufficient to redeem a specified num- 
ber ? I am free to say, that this is a view of the Saviour's 
sacrifice which I cannot find in the word of God. I 
cannot see that it is anywhere revealed in the Scriptures, 
that the amount of the Saviour's sufferings was equal, in 
value and measure, to what his own people deserved to 
suffer, and that beyond this their merit is exhausted. 
Some account has been presented in a preceding chapter 
of the nature of that great and effective propitiation, and 
it bears no resemblance to any such arithmetic as this. 
It is a matter of surprise, that men should ever have 
pretended to fix the exact amount and value of his suf- 
ferings who is '' God manifest in the flesh." If any 
would know how much the death of Christ is worth, I 
know not where, I know not when, they will find the 
problem solved. Not until measure is exhausted, and 
numbers fail. The intrinsic value of the Cross is infinite, 
and can never be told. There is enough and to spare. 
The fountain opened for sin and uncleanness is full — 
just as full as it was when those whom John saw coming 
out of great tribulation, washed their robes and were 
made white in the blood of the lamb — just as full now, as 
when righteous Abel washed in it and was made clean. 
IsTor are the infinite merit and sufficiency of the Cross 
merely incidental to his sacrifice, but a generosity on the 
part of God which was of settled and deliberate design. 
The idea that Christ is a special grant to some of the 



92 THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

human family, which, from its infinite value, is incident- 
ally sufficient for the whole, is a refinement in theology, 
the proof of which is not made out from the Holy Scrip- 
tures. The salvation of the Cross does not happen to be 
sufficient for all, because a less atonement would not be 
sufficient for a part ; its unmeasured amplitude and full- 
ness were the result of deliberate counsel, and the 
accomplishment of a purpose formed in the remote 
recesses of a past eternity. Its infinite sufficiency does 
not render it a provision for the fallen angels, because it 
is a sufficiency never designed for them. The inhabit- 
ants of our world sustain a different relation to the death 
of Christ from that which is sustained by devils. They 
sustain a diffisrent relation to the law of God, in conse- 
quence of his death, from that which devils sustain. 
The devils are under the law as a covenant of works — a 
broken covenant — and are therefore under its executed 
penalty : men are under the law '^in the hands of the 
Mediator," and therefore have the warrant to repent and 
believe the Gospel. Those of our lost race who are now 
living on the earth, and who for their unbelief will finally 
perish, sustain a different relation to the law from that 
which they would have sustained, had no propitiation 
ever been made. They have a day of grace, and though 
prisoners of law and justice, are "prisoners of hope," 
and invited to flee to the stronghold. But for the Cross, 
they would have been what fallen angels now are. 
They have the offer of mercy, which fallen angels have 
not. They have the privilege of seeking the Lord when 
he may be found, which fallen angels have not. 
They may lift their eyes to the mercy-seat, and 
plead the blood of this great propitiation, which fallen 
angels may not, dare not do. They enjoy these unutter- 
ably precious privileges through the death of Christ, and 



THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 93 

until the light of hope and mercy is extinguished in the 
grave. And when this world is passed away, and they 
lift up their eyes in hell, one of their bitterest reflections 
will be, that while the chief of sinners are saved by 
returning to God through Jesus Christ, they might have 
been saved in the same way, if they had not rejected the 
great salvation and chosen the paths to death. Such is the 
influence of the Cross upon the moral government of 
God, that he can be "just and the justifier of every one 
that belie veth in Jesus." The entire race are, in this 
respect, placed by the death of Christ upon the same 
footing. The same atonement which renders it consist- 
ent with the divine justice to pardon one returning sinner, 
renders it equally just to pardon any and every returning 
sinner. The object of this propitiation is to save the jus- 
tice of God harmless in pardoning ''every one that 
believeth." It has so changed the relations of the entire 
race to the law of God, that it is not the law which now 
stands in the way of their salvation, but their own impeni- 
tence and unbelief. The legal relations of those who 
will finally perish, and the legal relations of those who 
now disbelieve the Gospel, and who afterwards believe it 
and are saved, are now precisely the same. They are all 
under its curse, " condemned already, because they 
believe not in the name of the only begotten Son of 
God." The latter class are pardoned as soon as" they 
return to- their allegiance " by faith in his blood ;" and 
the former may be pardoned by falling in with the same 
gracious and condescending terms of salvation. The 
Cross respects men as sinners ; it addresses them as sin- 
ners. In its boundless all-sufiiciency, it has no concern 
with them in a numerical view ; but regards them as 
those whose relations to the law of God arc so changed 
by this effective propitiation, that all external obstacles to 



94 THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

their salvation are graciously removed. No matter who 
he is, or where he dwells ; no matter what his ignorance, 
or how many or how aggravated his sins ; if he belongs 
to the lost family of man, the Cross is the remedy fitted 
to reach him in all his woes. There is no locality, or 
condition, and no variety of the human species, to w^hich 
the narrative of the Cross, and its great and glorious 
truths, and its ineffable love and mercy, are not alike 
applicable. They furnish the great remedy which con- 
sults the guilt and misery of all classes of society, all 
periods of time, all climes, all nations, all languages, all 
men. They are equally fitted to the lost condition of one 
man, as another. They are sufficient for the race, and, 
so far as their unembarrassed sufficiency goes, w^ere de- 
signed for the race. There is no man whose forgiveness 
the Cross of Christ does not render just and righteous, on 
his repenting and believing the Gospel. In this view, the 
Cross is a deliberate, designed and honest provision for all 
men ; a privilege of which many may be ignorant, and 
many fail to improve, but one which, w^herever the Gospel 
is known, is as truly in the hands of those who misimprove 
it and perish, as of those who improve it and are saved. 
The proof of these remarks from the Scriptures is 
abundant, and familiar to every reader of the Bible. 
'' Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature." " Whosoever will let him take of the waters 
of life freely." " Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye 
to the waters." These, and a multitude of passages of 
similar import, are expressly addressed to all men, and 
from design. If it be said, that in commissioned mes- 
sages like these, God requires the ministers of the Gospel 
to make this indiscriminate offer of salvation, because 
they do not know who w^ill accept them, and because it 
is not their province to distinguish between those who 



THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 95 

are and those who are not his chosen people ; it must 
be borne in mind that the offer is God's own offer, and 
that his ministers make it only in his name. He en- 
dorses itj and speaks through them. He knows who his 
chosen people are ; and the gracious overture is made by 
his authority and on his behalf. '' Warn them from 
me." ^' Speak to them my words.^^ '' As though God 
did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Chrisfs stead, be 
ye reconciled to God." We wish to vindicate the un- 
feigned sincerity of the Gospel offer, and we do not per- 
ceive how it can be vindicated, unless God is able and 
willing to do what he offers to do ; unless he is willing 
his offer should be accepted ; and unless the offer be 
made on reasonable terms. He offers to all men sal- 
vation, through faith in the blood of his Son. This he 
is able and has a right to do, because there is infinite 
sufficiency in the death of Christ. This he is willing to 
do, or he would not offer it, nor so solemnly have sworn, 
'^ As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked, but that he turn and live." And 
the terms on which the offer is made are as reasonable 
and as low as they can be ; for nothing excludes any 
man from the richest blessings of the Gospel, but his own 
cherished rejection of them to the last. I cannot see that 
it is necessary to the sincerity of the offer, that God should 
make men themselves willing to accept it. There may 
be, there are, good reasons for his not doing this, in re- 
lation to all those who are finally lost, which do not at 
all conflict with the sincerity of the offer. The offer he 
makes is in every view expressive of his own mind and 
heart, of the infinite merit of his Son, and of the mu- 
nificence of his condescending grace. Upon this same 
ground, the obligation rests on all who come within the 
range of these published invitations to accept them. The 



96 THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

obligation is of the highest authority, and right in itself. 
It is the " commandment of the Everlasting God," to all 
men, everywhere. It is an obligation, the neglect of 
which is not only rebuked and punished, but the sin of 
sins, and one which, while it cuts off the incorrigible 
from hope, seals him up to that '' sorer punishment" of 
which those are thought worthy who tread under their 
feet the blood of the Son of God. The foundation which 
is laid in Zionis, therefore, strong and broad enough to sus- 
tain the confidence which is required with so much author- 
ity, and enforced with such solemn and affecting sanctions. 

There are not a few passages of Scripture which seem 
to me to give strong proof of this conclusion. '* God so 
loved the world j that he gave his only begotten Son ;" — 
he is the '^ propitiation for our sms, and not for ours only, 
but for the sins of the whole world ;^^ — " Who gave himself 
a ransom/or all to be testified in due time ;" — '' The Lamb 
of God who taketh away the sin of the world ;" — ^' Christ 
the Saviour of the world ;^^ — " The bread of God is he that 
giveth life unto the world ;" — ^' My flesh which I gave for 
the life of the world ;" — '' If one died for all, then were 
all dead ;" — '' That he, by the grace of God, should taste 
death for every man." Passages like these must teach 
either that it was the design of God, by the death of his 
Son, to save all men, which none but the rashest Universal- 
ist believes ; or that his Son was set forth to be such a 
propitiation as is amply sufficient for the salvation of all 
mankind, if all should repent and believe the Gospel. 

If the question be asked, what good ends the death of 
Christ secures by this redundancy of merit, since it is not 
designed to secure the salvation of the race ; the inquiry 
is substantially answered by the general scope and design 
of the preceding remarks. Is it nothing that it unfolds 
the love of God to a lost world ; that it throws upon men 



THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 97 

themselves the responsibility of plunging into the pit from 
this world of mercy, and in defiance of all the Cross has 
done ; that it leaves the despisers of his grace without 
excuse and speechless ; and that for the honor of the just 
God and Saviour, it plants in their bosoms the soul-wither- 
ing conviction, that because they would not come unto 
Christ that they might have life, they are the authors of 
their own destruction? Who shall tell the influence 
which the scenes of Calvary have exerted, and will yet 
exert, even where they fail to be the ^'wisdom of God 
and the power of God to salvation V Is there not a 
vastly less amount of wickedness in this lower world, even 
among those who will finally perish, from the very fact 
that it is a world of hope and mercy, and under the gov- 
ernment of the great Mediatorial Prince ? Is there no 
development of character, that is of importance to the 
interests of his kingdom, which would otherwise never 
have been made ? I do not know where to limit the 
eflfects of this mighty movement in the divine empire. 
The appeal is one to human ignorance ; but it is not a 
solitary one, in the government of God. Why does the 
light shine upon the eyes of the blind, or melodious 
sounds play around the ears of the deaf? There is no 
more reason to believe that the privilege of a preached 
Gospel, of an instructive and inviting sanctuary, of a 
Christian education, of private or social prayer, of 
advancement in any department of human science, or 
any other privilege, spiritual or temporal, were in vain 
given to those who never improve them, than that Christ 
died in vain in respect to those who reject his salvation. 
All these things answer important ends even where they 
are most perverted and abused. For the same reasons 
that " a price is put into the hands of a fool to get wis- 
dom wh^}) he hath no heart to it," so the provisions of 
5 



93 THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

the Cross possess a sufficiency, an amplitude as large as 
the sins and woes of men, though not accepted by all. 

The question, whether the Cross bears a relation to 
the whole, or a part of mankind, is and for centuries has 
been a vexed question. If it bears relation only to a 
part, what is that relation ? If it bears any relation to the 
whole, what is that relation 1 In one view, its re- 
demption is a definite and particular redemption ; because 
it was effected for the purpose of saving only a part of 
mankind. There is another view in which it is unlimit- 
ed and universal ; because it is in its own nature suf- 
ficient for all, and with the same honesty and fitness, 
and on the same terms, proposed to the acceptance of 
all. The views we have expressed are equally opposed, 
on the one hand, to those latitudinarian notions, which 
deny the penal sufferings of Christ, and teach that the 
great design of his death is simply declaratory, and a 
measure of expediency rather than one demanded by 
justice ; and on the other hand, to those which assign to 
his sufferings a value measured by the ill-desert of a part 
of mankind. Where these errors are renounced, and 
there is a concurrence of views in regard to the nature 
and all-sufficiency of the Redeemer's sacrifice, the dis- 
pute in regard to its extent is logomachy — a dispiUe 
about words. In a discourse on '^ The death of Christ 
a proper atonement for sin," the late Dr. Witherspoon 
remarks : '^ In this, as in most other debates, matters 
have been carried a far greater length than the interest 
of truth requires ; and as is also usual, they have arisen 
from an improper and unskillful mixture of what be- 
longs to the secret counsels of the Most High with his 
revealed will, which is the invariable rule of our duty." 
The strongest Calvinists, when they speak of the death 
of Christ as a measurp of God's moral government, and 



THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 99 

bearing alike upon the condition, conscience, privileges, 
and hopes of men, give it the greatest amplitude and full- 
ness. In the language of the lateDr. J. M. Mason, "The 
true and only warrant of faith is the free offer of Christ 
to us in the Gospel. God hath made a grant of his Son 
Jesus Christ, as an all-suflScient Saviour, to a lost and 
perishing world. He hath not merely revealed a general 
knowledge of him,but has directly and solemnly given him 
to sinners as such, that they might be saved. This gift is 
absolutely free — indiscriminately to all the hearers of the 
Gospel, and to every one of them in particular."* In an 
instructive treatise entitled, ^'The death of death in the 
death of Christ," Dr. Owen remarks: " Sufficient was the 
sacrifice of Christ for the redemption of the whole world, 
and for the expiation of all the sins of all and every man 
in the world. That it should be applied^ made a price for 
them, and become beneficial to them according to the 
worth that is in it, is external to it, and doth not arise 
from it, but merely depends on the intention and will of 
God." Just as, in one view, a feast is prepared for all 
the invited guests, and in another, only for those who 
partake of it ; so, in one view, is the Gospel feast fur- 
nished for all, and in another only for those who hunger 
and thirst after righteousness, and are partakers of its 
bounty. Just as the Bible, in one view, is revealed for 
all men, and in another view is revealed only for those 
who read, and understand, and profit by it ; so is this more 
condensed exhibition of its truth and grace, the Cross of 
Christ, in one view made over to all, and in another only 
to a part. 

The Cross, therefore, presents you a great, a free sal- 



* See an " Act of the Synod of the Associate Reformed Church in 
North America, concerning Faith and Justification."— j^/a^on'* Works. 



100 THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

vation. It is your birth-right, as born under the benign 
promise, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the 
head of the serpent. Were assembled thousands before 
me as they stood before Peter on the day of Pentecost, I 
would isolate each individual among them from the rest, 
and address him in the language of that apostle, *' Re- 
pent and be baptized every one of you in the name of 
Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." Were the eight 
hundred millions who now compose the population of 
this globe, assembled on some vast plain, I should be 
warranted, by the nature and sufficiency of this great sal- 
vation, to address each one by himself alone, and, as 
though he were the only solitary transgressor who needed 
salvation through the blood of the Cross, to assure him in 
God's name that he might have it for the taking. I would 
tell him that nothing is wanting to make it his, but his 
accepting it. This is the language of the Cross to every 
living man. God would not seal up his testimony to 
this lost world without including in it that comprehensive 
invitation, " And the Spirit and the bride say, come. 
And let him that heareth say, come. And let him tliat 
is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of 
the water of life freely." My brother of the lost family 
of man, it is on this mountain of Zion that the reader and 
writer are invited to a '' feast of fat things, of wines on 
the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees 
well refined." The voice of him who was '^ set forth to 
be a propitiation through faith in his blood," does but 
speak the language of his own warm heart, when he 
gives you the assurance, that " him that cometh he will 
in no wise cast out." Make ever so large demands upon 
the Cross, and you do not exhaust its efficacy. You have 
no need of any other refuge ; no, not even of any aux- 
iliary. It is the exclusive right of that great sufferer to 



THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 101 

redeem. He insists upon this great and glorious mo- 
nopoly. Casting his eyes upon you, as you turn over these 
pages, he says, '' Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye 
ends of the earth ; for I am God and there is none else." 
It is an affecting reality that you still occupy a place 
in this world of hope. You dwell on the earth where 
the holy child Jesus was born ; where he wept, and bled, 
and died. There are those to whom this same announce- 
ment might have been made ; but it is too late to make 
it to them in that world of darkness and despair. Could 
we tell them of these glad tidings now — could some 
herald of heavenly mercy be commissioned to enter 
that dark abode whence the light of hope has ever been 
debarred, with what wonder would its wretched inhabit- 
ants, from those seats of woe, look at the unwonted mes- 
senger! They could scarcely conceive the purpose of 
his coming ; and when, amid the accents of horror which 
are everywhere uttered, this messenger of heaven should 
sound forth through the interminable dungeon a note of 
mercy ; human language fails to describe the unknown, 
the almost infinite emotion that would leap into being at 
the sound. Oh, could it be told in that gloomy, fright- 
ful world, that there is a wondrous method of restoring 
mercy, their wild revulsion of joy words would fail to 
express, even if it could be conceived. But there are 
no such glad tidings for those deep abodes of darkness 
and death. The voice of mercy never has broken that 
melancholy monotony of ages, and never will break it. 
But the hope that is denied to them is imparted to fallen 
man. The mercy they may not look for, and the life 
which they forever despair of regaining, are offered and 
brought nigh to you. To you, is '^ the word of this sal- 
vation sent ;" to you, and not to devils ; to you, and not 
to the spirits of lost men ; to you, and not to the dead 5 



1Q2 THE CROSS ACCESSIBLE. 

to you, and not to the heathen ; though you are but 
" man that is a worm, and the son of man which is as a 
worm; though your sin abounds and your iniquities are 
as scarlet and crimson ; and though you have so often 
rejected it. And what reception will you now give to 
it 1 Oh, thou polluted and condemned ! come and wash 
in this fountain of ablution and grace ; come and find 
pardon at this blood-stained mercy-seat. Oh, thou wan- 
derer and outcast ! while the storm lowers, and before it 
breaks in its fury, hearken to him w^ho would cover you 
from its indignation, even as a hen gathereth her brood 
under her wings. The Cross is the emblem of tranquillity 
and peace. Help is far, and death is nigh, if you turn 
away from the Cross. As God has made you to differ 
from the devils and the damned, from the heathen and 
from the spirits of lost men, so does heboid you account- 
able for his proffered grace. ''The servant that knew his 
Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many 
stripes." Some future period in your undone eternity 
may remind you of the Cross of Christ. Some deeper 
cavern in the world of despair may witness the surpass- 
ing intensity of your grief, beyond the sorrows of many a 
less guilty convict, who never trampled upon a Saviour's 
blood. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

Pardon throug-h the blood of the Cross is preliminary 
to advancement through its righteousness. The criminal 
who is pardoned by the State, is not on that account 
received into favor : rather is he still regarded as a dis- 
graced and degraded man; and it requires singularly 
meritorious services to reinstate him at court. So pardon 
through the Cross does not so restore the sinner to the 
favor of God as to give him a title to all the immunities 
of the divine kingdom. It is indeed a great matter that 
the death of Christ has procured his pardon ; but this is 
not all that he needs. By this, he is simply acquitted 
from the penalty of the law ; he escapes from punish- 
ment ; he is merely kept out of hell, and has '^ attained 
the mid-way position of God's letting him alone." He 
asks for something higher ; he seeks the privileges of a 
loyal and obedient subject ; he would be entitled to the 
rewards of righteousness ; he would stand restored, re- 
instated in the favor of his heavenly Prince, and not 
merely a fair candidate for gracious advancement, but 
the titled possessor of courtly, of heavenly honors. This 
title the Cross of Christ gives him. To every believer, it 
is a completed justification. Thus it is that his entire sal- 
vation is not the work of man, but from beginning to end 
the work of Christ, and will be to the glory of Him who 
" is all in all." And this is one of the attractions of the 
Cross. 



104 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

The prominent point of divergency of all false religions 
from the true, will be found in ignorance, denial, or 
perversion of this great truth. Among the radical errors 
of the Church of Rome, is the doctrine of human merit 
and of works of supererogation. The belief of that 
antichristian system is, that all that Jesus Christ has done 
for men is to enable them to merit the favor of God for 
themselves ; that his desert makes them deserving ; and 
that his merit consists in giving merit to their own obe- 
dience. It teaches that there are good works over and 
above those which God requires, and which constitute 
a fund of merit to be distributed as an offset to all defal- 
cations, and are to be regarded as a claim for favor 
otherwise forfeited. When, after many painful strug- 
gles, a few pious and devoted men, who had been educated 
in the bosom of that church, had become so convinced of 
her apostacy as to resolve on a separation from her com- 
munion, and a systematic organization of a Reformed 
Church, the great means on which, under God, they 
relied, next to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, 
was the great doctrine of the sinner's acceptance through 
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Of all the truths which 
produced such mighty results in the state of the world 
at that period of conflict, and which was honored of its 
divine Author in effecting the Reformation, none stood 
forth rhore prominent than this. '' This article reigns in 
my heart," said Luther, " and with this the church 
stands or falls." 

Justification is the reverse of that state of condemna- 
tion to which man as a sinner is adjudged by the law of 
God. It is not the creature's act, but purely the act of 
God. It is not the moral character of the creature that 
is eflfected by it, but his legal relations. It is not the 
work of the Holy Spirit on his heart, nor his own per- 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 105 

sonal exercise of a gracious disposition ; but the sentence 
of God, as Lawgiver, pronouncing him just and accepting 
him as a righteous man. It is not an acquittal of the 
charge of personal wickedness ; for in the very act of 
justification, there is the strongest implication of that 
charge. Nor is it in any form, or degree, a vindication 
of the sinner's conduct, nor any excuse or palliation of 
it ; but, on the other hand, a direct condemnation of it, 
and in the most emphatic terms. " It is God that justi- 
fieth." It is the act of God, originating in his free, 
unmerited grace, whereby he judges the disobedient to 
the rewards of the obedient — the unjust to the rewards 
of the just ; securing to them all the positive blessings 
which his law secures to an unoffending and perfectly 
obedient subject. Be they adoption into the divine family 
and all the privileges of the sons of God — be they the 
divine guardianship and favor in time of trouble, and 
the divine presence as they go down to the dark valley — 
be they the resurrection and the life when they dwell in 
the dust, or the cheering sentence of approbation when 
they stand at the bar of judgment — be they what they 
may, which the law secures to the sinless and obedient, 
the act of justification secures to the believer. 

Thus to '^justify the ungodly'^ is a most important 
measure in the divine government, and may not be per- 
formed slightly, nor without good and sufficient reasons. 
What that is which renders it right and just for God to 
do this, and which constitutes the foundation, the ground, 
or the meritorious cause of justification, is very distinctly 
revealed in the sacred writings. Our first parents were, 
in the more rigid acceptation of the phrase, in a state 
of probation, and put upon their good behaviour. On 
condition of maintaining their integrity during this period 
of trial, they were to be confirmed in holiness and 
5* 



106 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

happiness, and to become the possessors of eternal hfe. 
It is an unvarying principle of the divine government, 
that eternal life is bestowed in approbation of a perfect 
righteousness. ^' The man that doeth these things shall 
live in them.^^ Such a righteousness is good, and will 
stand in the day of reckoning. It is spotless and pure ; it 
is the righteousness of the unfallen, and whoever possess- 
es it, shall find it a complete and completed justification. 
If any are to be found among our race who have per- 
fectly obeyed the law of God, they have a legal right 
to acquittal from punishment, and to the reward of a 
perfect obedience. Now, this great principle of the 
divine government is abundantly magnified by the Cross 
of Christ; and in every instance of salvation, eternal life 
is still bestowed in approbation of a perfect righteous- 
ness. Such a righteousness deserves, and has a claim of 
merit on such a reward ; nor is the reward ever bestowed 
except for such a righteousness. The idea of merit, as 
attaching itself to a perfect obedience, has, I am sensible, 
been repudiated by some writers ; but if the word itself 
be not destitute of meaning, and if there be such a thing 
as merit in the moral world, it is found in a perfect 
obedience to the holy law of God. But such a righteous- 
ness belongs not to any of the apostate descendants of 
Adam. " All have sinned and come short of the glory 
of God." '^ By the deeds of law shall no flesh be justi- 
fied." If man, who is as ^^ an unclean thing," and all 
'^his righteousness as filthy rags," is ever just with God, 
it must be by the righteousness of another. The sinner 
has no good works, no obedience which can, either in 
whole or in part, come in the place of a spotless right- 
eousness, and constitute the ground of his acceptance 
with God. To all the intents and purposes of his justi- 
fication, once a sinner he is always a sinner. His oppor- 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. JQT 

tunity for securing a title to eternal life by the deeds of 
law was lost by his first offence, and can never be re- 
gained. Yet is there a way, by which, according to the 
gracious method of reckoning revealed in the Gospel, 
God is just and the justifier of him that believeth in 
Jesus ; and sinner though he is, through " the free gift," 
which ^' is of many offences unto justification," he is en- 
titled to life eternal, because, by the divine appointment, 
there is a righteousness which comes in place of his own, 
and in the working out of which he himself has no 
share. 

Whose is this righteousness, and whence does it pro- 
ceed 1 In answering this question, we must have recourse 
to a plain, yet important principle in the divine govern- 
ment. No finite being is capable of rendering an obedi- 
ence to the law of God which is capable, upon legal 
principles, of exerting a meritorious influence on the 
behalf of others, because his entire and unceasing service 
is due to God on his own account. The holiest finite 
being in the universe has not one act of obedience to spare 
beyond that full measure of holiness which is necessary 
to make good his own title to eternal life. An infinite 
being only — one who, by his nature, is placed above all 
necessary or original obligation, and who, from his in- 
finite perfection and essential supremacy, is able to invest 
his obedience with a merit that is infinite — can provide a 
righteousness which may be reckoned to the account of 
the unrighteous. This was the great expedient to which 
the wisdom and love of God had recourse as the basis of 
his glorious Gospel, and as the means whereby he could 
show himself " a just God and a Saviour." There was 
such a righteousness which he could acknowledge — a 
righteousness which he could look upon with compla- 
cency — an obedience with which he is well pleased. It 



108 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

is a righteousness that stands " separate and aloof" from 
all created righteousness, and one that not only meets the 
demands of the law, but so magnifies it and makes it 
honorable that its worth can never be diminished, nor its 
resources exhausted. It is difficult to misinterpret the plain 
language of the New Testament on this imjiortant topic. 
^^As by the offence of One, judgment came upon all men 
to condemnation ; eveii so, by the righteousness of One, 
the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sin- 
ners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made 
righteous." The principle of representation is the great 
principle of the mediatorial government; the first re- 
vealed to man, the first in importance, and that to which 
every legal dispensation is subservient. It was com- 
pletely developed when the holy Sufferer of Calvary 
stood in the sinner's place, and became " obedient unto 
death, even the death of the Cross." Though both God 
and man, he ^' was made under the law," and '' fulfilled 
all righteousness." He had no native pollution like other 
men, and he committed no actual transgression. Tempta- 
tions and trials such as no other being ever endured, the se- 
ductions of friends, and the fury of enemies, did not even 
contaminate his pure and holy mind. The severe tempta- 
tions of the wilderness only demonstrated his unbending 
integrity. The fiery darts of the adversary fell harmless 
at his feet, quenched and cold before his awful goodness. 
Humbling as was the defeat of the first, triumphant was 
the victory of the second Adam in the recovered Para- 
dise. 

" By one man's firm obedience fully tried, 
Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled 
In all his wiles, dejected and repulsed, 
And Eden raised in the waste wilderness.'* 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 109 

Never had the foe been driven from the conflict with 
such defeat and shame, and never, save on Calvary, did 
the Conqueror win such unfading laurels, and such an 
untarnished crown. To say nothing of his divine cha- 
racter, the perfect ohedience of the man Christ Jesus is 
the most important and interesting fact in the history of 
our race. It stands alone, and we may well contemplate 
it with wonder. Among the millions who have already 
lived upon this earth, or who will hereafter be found 
upon it, in vain may you seek but for this one man, who 
can look up before the face of heaven, and assert his 
rights as a spotless, unsinning man before the justice of 
his Maker. One there is, of the posterity of Adam, in 
w^hom the race may glory. Shame and confusion of 
face belong to us ; but the spotless obedience of the Vir- 
gin's Son will forever remain the redeeming quality of 
human nature. But this alone does not constitute oui 
vicarious righteousness. The obedience which gives the 
believer a title to eternal life, is the obedience of the God- 
man Mediator, and more especially to the mediatorial 
law, the obligations of which he had voluntarily assumed, 
and w^hich required him to suffer and die in the place of 
the disobedient : it is his " obedience unto death,^^ 
Through all the length of his bitter w^ay of tears and 
blood he held his course sinless and uncontaminated, till, 
with the same spirit which led him to say in anticipation 
of his work, " I delight to do thy will, O God," he could 
affirm at the close of it, and with no consciousness of im- 
perfection, " I have glorified thee on the earth, I have 
finished the work thou gavest me to do." Into this en- 
tire course of spotless and self-denying obedience was 
thrown the whole glory of God manifested in human 
nature, the fullness of Him in w^hom '^ dwcllcth all the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily." There is surely some- 



110 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

thing in obedience like this which deserves high and dis- 
tinguished approbation, performed as it was by God 
manifest in the flesh, in subjection to a law to which it 
was infinite condescension to be subjected, and not for 
his own sake, but for guilty men. There is merit in such 
a righteousness, and it deserves reward. From beginning 
to end it was a work of supererogation, and has claims 
which are available, not to the sufferer alone, but to all 
those whom he condescends to make '' bone of his bone 
and flesh of his flesh." 

There is nothing far-fetched in this. If ten imper- 
fectly righteous men would have saved Sodom, what 
shall not such a righteousness as this accomplish ? If it 
is a principle of the divine government to reward perfect 
obedience, what shall be the reward of him with whom 
the Eternal Father is so ''well pleased," and so '' de- 
lighteth to honor?" What is there unreasonable — what 
is there unscriptural — in the supposition, that in carrying 
out the principle of representation of which the first 
Adam was " a figure," the Supreme Lawgiver should 
constitute the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven, the 
representative of all who should believe in him 1 What 
if he should award to the obedient Sufferer of Calvary 
the boon which his benevolent mind so ardently desired, 
the "joy that was set before him " when he endured the 
Cross, despising the shame 1 What if, for the sake of 
testifying his high regard for a perfect righteousness, 
that rare pearl in our fallen world — a righteousness thus 
complete, thus perfected by all the glory of the Divine 
Nature added to the sinless obedience of the man Christ 
Jesus — he should allow others of his race, and purely 
for his sake, to have the full benefits of his own solitary 
obedience? What if he should become "the Lord 
THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS j" and since, by one man's offence. 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. m 

death reigned by one, much more they which receive 
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness ''should 
reign in life by One, Jesus Christ." It is even so. This, 
as I read the Scriptures, is the substance of their instruc- 
tions on the subject of the believer's justification. Such is 
the ground and meritorious cause of his being accepted 
as a righteous man. This is his sole title to eternal life. 
He has notliing else, seek it where he will. It is not his 
own righteousness, but the righteousness of another. It is 
not what he has done, but what Christ has done. It is not 
anything within himself, but something out of himself, 
and a " transaction in which he had no share." It is 
not a reward for services which he has rendered, 
but a reward gratuitously provided and bestowed on 
him, for services which Christ has rendered. It is 
not his merit, but the merit of One into whose completed 
work is thrown the redundant merit of his humanity and 
Deity combined. '' I do not frustrate the grace of God ; 
for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead 
in vain." The Apostle Paul " counted all things but 
loss," that he might ''be found in him, not having his 
own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is 
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of 
God by faith." How sure the title ! How much more 
full the reward than if the believer himself had been 
sinless, or had been clad in the most spotless robe of the 
purest seraph before the throne ! Well did the great 
Mediator say, " I am come that they might have life, 
and that they might have it more abundantly /" 

While speaking on this part of our subject, it may be 
desirable for us to have some definite impression of what 
is meant by the righteousness of Chriat, or of that in 
which this righteousness consists. The phrase is ob- 
viously used in the New Testament to denote different 



112 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

shades of thought. It is called the righteousness of 
Christy because it is truly and properly his, and per- 
formed by him. It is called the righteousness of God, 
because it is the method of justification of God's provid- 
ing. It is called the righteousness of faith in distinction 
from the righteousness which is of the law, and because 
it is received by faith. Nor is it unfrequently represent- 
ed as the believer^ s righteousjiess. '' Surely shall one 
say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength." 
The Apostle speaks of '^ putting on Christ," and the 
Prophet represents the Church as saying, '^ He hath 
clothed me with the garments of salvation; he hath 
covered me with the robe of righteousness." These and 
similar representations express the thought, that it is 
righteousness which is made over to the believer, and 
put, as it were, upon him, and that he enjoys the full 
benefit of it just as though it were his own. I do not find 
in the Scriptures any ground for the distinction between 
what is called the active and the passive obedience of the 
Mediator ; or between his obedience to the precept, and 
his obedience to the penalty, of the law. His righteous- 
ness consists in both. It is his '^ obedience unto death." 
It is " his will to serve, and his will to suffer." The one 
may not be separated from the other. It '' was obedience 
for him to suffer, and it was suffering for him to obey." 
His righteousness may be said to consist of his suffering 
obedience and his obedient suffering, both qualified and 
receiving their high character from his two distinct na- 
tures as God and man in one person, and as the appoint- 
ed, voluntary and accepted Mediator. 

The inquiry is a very natural one. How do the henefts 
of the Redeemer'' s righteousness become ours ? The answer 
is easy and easily understood. The righteousness of 
Christ is not infused into us, imparted to us, as the 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. II3 

Romanists affirm ; nor is it in any way transferred to us, 
as has been incautiously taught by some loose writers 
among Protestants. As has already been intimated, ac- 
cording to God's gracious method of reckoning in the 
Gospel, believers are treated as righteous, because Christ 
himself, their covenant head and representative, is right- 
eous. His righteousness is imputed to them, or set down 
to their account. Though it does not properly and per- 
sonally belong to them, it is reckoned to them as if it 
Avere their own. They are "- made the righteousness of 
God in him." '' Blessed is the man to whom God im- 
puteth righteousness without works^^ — or in other words, 
a righteousness which he himself does not Avork out. 
'' But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made 
unto us righteousness." But there is another idea in re- 
lation to the way in which the righteousness of Christ 
becomes ours, in addition to the fact that it is made so by 
God, and by his gracious act of imputing it. It becomes 
so by the faith of those who receive it. All mankind are 
not among the justified. It is not every one Avho is born 
in Christian lands, nor every descendant from a long 
line of pious ancestry, nor every one who recieves the 
ordinance of baptism, to whom '' Christ is the end of the 
law for righteousness :" it is not the bold infidel, nor the 
thoughtless sinner, nor he whose god is mammon : it is not 
the Sabbath breaker, the intemperate, the liar, the licen- 
tious : no, nor yet every moral man, nor every serious 
man, nor every awakened sinner, nor every man who 
unites himself with the visible Church of God. Though 
the righteousness of Christ is the sole ground of justifi- 
cation, that justification belongs only to a particular and 
well-defined class of men. The great principle of the Gos- 
pel on this point is, that no man is justified, or has any 
part in the righteousness of the Son of God, who remains 



114 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

dead in trespasses and sins. It is but a compendious ex- 
pression of this equitable principle, that this righteousness 
be received by faith, as well as imputed by God. ''Being 
j-ustified by faith, we have peace with God;" — '' All that 
believe are justified ;" — " The justifier of him that be- 
lieveth in Jesus ;" — '' He that believeth shall be saved ;" 
— "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to 
every one that believeth /^^ To all believers the righteous- 
ness of Christ stands in the place of their own, and 
answers the same ends. All others are under the curse. 
The law demands the imputed righteousness of another 
on its own account; while the Gospel demands faith in 
those who are justified on their account. The former is 
demanded by the Lawgiver in older to vindicate him in 
justifying those who have violated his law ; the latter is 
demanded by the moral character and condition of apos- 
tate men, which disqualifies and forbids them from en- 
joying the benefits of this salvation without becoming 
''the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." Both 
are equally necessary, though for diflferent reasons ; the 
former to answer the claims of the divine law, the latter 
to answer the restoring and purifying ends of a Gospel 
which saves not in sin, but from sin. 

The previous thoughts will assist us in determining the 
question, When does justification take place ? There are 
two errors in relation to the time of justification — the one 
referring it to an eternity that is past, the other referring 
it to the judgment that is to come. The idea that it does 
not take place until the final judgment has arisen from 
the impression, that as it is a judicial act, it is properly 
performed only by the Judge as seated on his throne, and 
from the fact that not till then are the full benefits of it 
realized. But this latter idea overlooks the thought so 
abundantly taught in the sacred volume, that a justified 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. II5 

State is still a state of gracious and paternal discipline. 
As for the former, it is a mere impression, and is well 
countervailed by another and more scriptural impres- 
sion, that God has not left his people to the barren and 
comfortless doctrine that their acceptance is a matter to 
be decided on hereafter. The Scriptures speak of their 
justification as an act performed in time ; nor, with but a 
single exception, do they ever, so far as I now remember, 
speak of it in the future tense. In regard to the notion 
of eternal justification, while the reasoning to support it 
is intelligible, it is inconclusive. The reasoning is this : 
Since the meritorious ground of justification is the right- 
eousness of another, and the imputation of that right- 
eousness the act of God, it holds good for the ends for 
which it was designed from eternity ; and more especially, 
as God from eternity purposed to justify his people, must 
that purpose be regarded as always valid. But the reason 
is purely sophistical. If the purpose of God to justify his 
people was to justify them through faith, their faith as 
truly entered into his purpose as the righteousness of his 
Son. The righteousness of Christ, though the only ground 
of their justification, does not put them in a justified state 
until they believe. It avails them nothing in unbelief. 
It cannot belong to them before they receive it, any more 
than it can belong to them if they never receive it. " He 
that believeth not is condemned already, because he helieveth 
not in the name of the only begotten Son of God.^^ Men 
are very apt to draw false conclusions from premises that 
are true, when they disjoin the truth of God, and put it 
out of its proper place. Justification respects men as 
believers or unbelievers, and not as elected or unelected. 
The elect are unbelievers until they believe. Thoy are 
out of Christ and under condemnation. So long as they 
abide in unbelief, the wrath of God abideth on them, and 



116 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 

the demands of his justice are against them in all their 
force. In opposition to these two errors, we affirm that 
God's act of imputing, and the believer's act of receiving, 
the righteousness of his Son, are simultaneous. The act 
is complete at the time of its being performed. It is a 
decision, not in an eternity past, nor in an eternity to 
come, but one pronounced in time, and taking effect at 
once. The moment a sinner believes, he passes from a 
state of condemnation to a justified state. '' There is 
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." 
'' Whom he called, them he also justified." Their sanc- 
tification is progressive ; they have many a foe to struggle 
with, and not a few mournful inequalities in their spiritual 
course; but their justification is as complete from the 
moment in which they '' receive Christ Jesus the Lord," 
as it will be when they stand before God in judgment. 
It is matured from the first and always matured ; because 
it rests not upon themselves, but upon their Divine Mas- 
ter. It varies not with their changeful frames and feel- 
ings, nor with the mutable evidences of piety within 
their own bosoms ; because it rests on the great fact that 
never changes — the Redeemer's obedience to the death 
of the Cross. 

One of the great attractions of the Cross therefore is, that 
it furnishes this completed justification. This is one of its 
strong attractions, because it is one of its strong truths. 
Be not tempted to glory in any other, or to dream of any 
other way of making your cause good before God, save 
by the righteousness of faith. It is a fact worthy of 
remembrance in the history of the church, that those 
who have given the world the most abundant evidence 
of large measures of the spirit and power of godliness, 
have confided least in their own righteousness, and most 
gloried in a righteousness not their own. The more dis- 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. HJ 

tinguished you are in spiritual attainments, and the nearer 
access you are allowed to enjoy to the unutterable glory, 
the more will you '^ count all things but loss for the 
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord." 
Let this great truth give you courage. I have said 
that it is a strong truth. Where is there a stronger truth 
than that, " once justified, you are always justified ?" 
Your light may wax and wane ; your religious experi- 
ence may be fitful, and your hopes alternately bright and 
obscured ; your comforts may be few, or many, and you 
may be growing very gradually to the stature of a perfect 
man in Jesus Christ ; but there is no waxing or waning, 
no alternate light and darkness, no growth or enlarge- 
ment of your justification. It matters not whether he 
hopes, or fears — the believer is justified. Nothing impairs 
the righteousness of God his Saviour, or changes his divine 
promise and purpose. His own hopes ma)" be obscured, 
he may walk in darkness, the sin that dwelleth in him 
may weaken his own inward sense of his justification ; 
but his own impressions of his justification are not his 
justification itself. He may come to the tranquillity of a 
peaceful, or the transports of a triumphant death, or may 
pass away under the cloud ; but he does not die less safely, 
because he may die less triumphantly. It is all one with 
him when he dies, or where he dies, or how he dies ; if 
a believer in Jesus, he dies safely. His justification is 
the same, '' whether he dies to-day, or fifty years hence." 
He may say more boldly, but he can never say more truly, 
" In the Lord have I righteousness and strength," than 
in "that blessed hour when he first received him." It 
is as true now, when he may peradventure be passing 
many a gloomy day under the hidings of God's face, 
that neither the law, nor sin, nor death, nor hell, can 
"lay anything to the charge of God's elect," because 



118 THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION 

^' it is God that justifieth," as it will be when every cloud 
is scattered and his Sun goes down upon his throne of 
gold. Trembling believer, distressed believer, nothing 
shall separate you from the Cross. You may lose sight 
of the Cross, but the Cross will not lose sight of you. 
You may lose your hold upon the Cross, but the Cross 
will not lose its hold upon you. " Whom he justified, 
them he also glorified." " Being now justified by his 
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." 

Let this great truth also keep you humble. " Here 
grace reigns." You have nothing whereof to glory. 
The Cross is the attraction of grace. Born under a broken 
covenant, and possessing a character matured in practical 
wickedness, justice binds you over to all the law can 
inflict ; but in the place of this condemnation, you have 
a justifying righteousness wrought out by another, which 
is itself both the expression and the gift of grace unut- 
terably rich and free. " Though ye have lain among 
the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered 
with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." " Thou 
art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." " Come 
and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what 
he hath done for my soul ;" for he '' hath clothed me 
with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with 
the robe of righteousness." " Not unto me, O Lord, not 
unto me, but to thy name give glory !" 

The Cross is a withering thought to all the hopes of the 
purely self-righteous. The vain eflfort to make your wa)'^ 
to heaven by " works of righteousness which you have 
done," is only to rush on the avenger's sword. Your 
courage will fail. You are welcome to the eflfort ; but 
you have no alternative but to abide the precept and 
fulfil the law. And I forewarn you that it will cost you 
care and pains, watchfulness and agony, utterly beyond 



THE CROSS A COMPLETED JUSTIFICATION. 119 

the power of man. Already have you a burden of guilt 
too heavy to be borne. And when you have struggled 
with it till your strength withers, and every hope is 
crushed, and your heart sinks within you, I pray God it 
may not be too late for you to look to the Cross of the 
atoning, justifying Saviour, and remember who it was 
that '^ came to seek and to save that which was lost.'' 



CHAPTER VIII. 



FAITH IN THE CROSS. 



Unless we adopt the most dangerous error, we cannot 
deny that the Cross saves only those who believe. Until 
a man believes the Gospel, he is under the curse of the 
law; and if he never believes it, under the curse he must 
remain. Faith, on his part, is as necessary to his justi- 
fication, as the righteousness of Christ is necessary, on 
God's part, in receiving him into favor. The language 
of the Scriptures, on this point, is as explicit as it can be. 
The death of Christ is declared to be a propitiation 
through "faith in his blood J ^ " Being justified by faith ^^^ 
says the apostle, " we have peace with God." '' The 
righteousness of God" is affirmed to be " by the faith in 
Jesus Christ,'''^ It is "unto all, and upon all them that 
believe.^ ^ " A man is not justified by the works of the 
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,'^ " The Scriptures 
conclude all under sin, that the promise, by faith in Jesus 
Chi'ist, might be given to all them that believe.^' 

In speaking, therefore, of the attraction of the Cross, 
we may not overlook the thought, that it is the object of 
saving faith. What is the faith of the Gospel ? and why 
do the Scriptures attach so much importance to this par- 
ticular grace, rather than any other, as the revealed 
condition of salvation ? These two inquiries present the 
outline of the present chapter. 



FAITH IN THE CROSS 12j 

What is the faith of the Gospel ? There are various 
graces of the Christian character, each of which possesses 
properties peculiar to itself. The distinctive character of 
each is decided by the object towards which it is appropri- 
ately exercised. None of them exist in the soul until it 
is converted to God, and acquires that new and spiritual 
life whereby the mind perceives new truths, and truths 
formerly perceived, with new and holy affections. They 
are not the production of nature, nor superinduced by any 
human discipline, or any persuasion or ingenuity of man, 
but wrought out and perfected by the spirit of God. '^ If 
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." The ele- 
mentary principles of faith are the same in all good men, 
and are found in substance in every regenerated mind. 
But it does not follow, that all the exercises of the re- 
newed mind are of the same specific character. Love 
to God is not repentance ; humility is not submission, nor 
is submission joy, nor is either of them faith. Love to 
God is exercised in view of the divine character; re- 
pentance in the more immediate view of sin ; hu- 
mility in view of personal unworthiness and ill-desert ; 
submission in view of those dispensations of the divine 
government in which the will of God is opposed to our 
own; and faith in view of the method of salvation by Christ. 
The Cross is the peculiar and distinctive object of be- 
lieving. Faith is the act of the mind which '^ receives 
and rests upon Christ alone, for salvation, as he is freely 
offered in the Gospel." God makes a grant of Jesus 
Christ in the Gospel to men as sinners. It is his own 
method of mercy, and is proposed to men with all its 
fullness, simply on the testimony of its divine Author. 
Jesus Christ complained of the Jews because they " re- 
ceived the testimony of men," but not " the testimony of 
God, which is greater." It is the peculiar province of 
6 



122 FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

faith to receive this testimony , because it is his testimony 
who " cannot lie." In receiving this testimony, it re- 
ceives and rests upon Christ for salvation. Impressed 
with the conviction of his own utter inability to meet the 
demands of the divine law, perceiving by the Cross where 
those demands are met, sensible that none but that great 
Sufferer can deliver him from going down to the pit, and 
appreciating Christ Jesus as '' the end of the law for 
righteousness," the sinner reposes his confidence on 
that finished redemption. By this act of the mind he 
becomes a believer. Christ is his hope, and his Cross 
his refuge. What things were gain to him he now 
counts loss for Christ ; his wisdom, folly ; his own right- 
eousness, as filthy rags ; his former glory, but his present 
shame ; his former security, but refuges of lies ; his for- 
mer hopes, but a spider's web : — " Yea, doubtless, he 
counts all things but loss, for the excellency of the know- 
ledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord." This is the faith of 
the Gospel. It is the combined act of the understanding 
and the affections. It carries with it the intellect, but 
much more the heart. It is the assent of the understand- 
ing and the consent of the will, uniting in a satisfied and 
gratified persuasion and confidence of the whole soul to 
the record which God has given concerning his Son. It 
is the grace which ''sets to his seal that God is true," 
and by which an apostate sinner has a legitimate title to 
the name of Christian. Whatever concerns the Cross of 
Christ is a peculiarly interesting topic of thought to such 
a man. His faith looks to Christ as the God-man Medi- 
ator, coming to redeem a ruined world ; as making 
an end of sin, and bringing in everlasting righteous- 
ness ; as triumphing over death and the grave, as- 
cending into heaven and sitting at the right hand of 
God, there, by the influence of his character and work, to 



FAITH IN THE CROSS. 123 

make intercession for his people. It appropriates this 
Saviour, in all his characters, as Prophet, Priest and King", 
atoning by his death, instructing by his word, and rescu- 
ing, defending and ruling by his power. It apprehends 
him as a complete and perfect Saviour, securing all that 
the sinner most needs and desires, all that is most valua- 
ble to the life that now is and that which is to come. It 
forms the bond of union between Christ and the soul, as 
the Finisher as well as the Author of salvation, as the 
head of all gracious influences, and as the only way of 
''increasing in all the increase of God.'' Such is the 
faith of the Gospel. 

But the main object of the present chapter is to show, 
why the Scriptures attach so much importance to this par~ 
ticular grace , as the revealed condition of salvation , rather 
than to any other. That they do so is obvious, and there 
are not wanting important reasons for this wise and even 
necessary arrangement. 

In adverting to some of these, it must strike every 
mind, that in the method of salvation by the Cross there 
is a demand for faith, which the exercise of no other 
Christian grace can satisfy. There are things to be 
believed, to be believed with the heart; and they are 
strange and wonderful things. Some of them constitute 
the mysteries of godliness. They are not the objects of 
human reason ; they are not the subjects of observation 
and experiment ; they are not capable of that sort of 
demonstration which is peculiar to those more exact sci- 
ences where the human intellect riots and revels in the 
discovery and enjoyment of its own high faculties. They 
are God in human nature ; they are the infinite Deity, so 
loving a worm of the dust as to abandon his own Son to 
the agonies of the Cross ; they are the substitution of the 
innocent for the guilty, and the efficacy of that subgititu- 



124 FAITH IN THE CEOSS- 

tion, in defiance of all that is degrading and condemning 
in human wickedness, all that is imperative in the claims 
of the divine law, all that is terrible in death and the grave, 
and all that is mighty in the powers of darkness. Now, 
no other grace is fitted to come in the place of faith, when 
such wonderful proposals as these are made to the human 
mind. Love cannot reach them ; penitence cannot reach 
them ; humility cannot reach them ; patience and meek- 
ness, long-suffering and self-denial, cannot reach them. 
They are the peculiar and exclusive objects of faith — of 
implicit faith in the divine testimony. They make their 
appeal, not to sense, not to reason — for they are above and 
beyond reason — but to faith. So far are they beyond the 
range of human thoughts, that it is impossible to receive 
them without an unhesitating confidence in their divine 
Author. The Gospel is a revelation of wonderful truths 
and wonderful claims. It sets before us a mighty Saviour, 
and bids us trust in him. It tells us that God is just while 
he justifies, and calls upon us to believe it. It assures 
us that he is able to keep that which we have committed 
to him, and requhes us to be satisfied that he is so. It 
reveals to us the duties of our high calling, the perils of 
our course, the conflicts with the sin that dwelleth in us, 
and with the world and the adversary without us ; and 
while it promises that ^' as our day is, so shall our strength 
be," directs us to confide in that promise, and go on our 
way rejoicing. It points to the chamber of death, and 
bids us to go up to it with peace, because Jesus died. It 
points to the dark valley, and bids us go down through all 
its gloomy darkness, with a confidence and peace which 
the world cannot give, because " he rose again." It 
tells us to go forward, when, to mere sense and reason, all 
is midnight darkness. And it calls upon us cheerfiUly to 
venture on the ocean of eternit}^, because the God of 



FAITH IN THE CROSS. 125 

truth assures us that all will be well, and that we shall 
reach the haven at last. Compliance with these high 
claims is not only the act of faith, but of no other grace. 
No other grace can confide thus* Reason can discover 
that a God who is infinitely lovely deserves to be loved ; 
that sin infinitely hateful ought to be hated ; and that the 
word of the God of truth ought to be believed ; while to 
believe such things as these is not the province of reason, 
'' Thomas," said our divine Lord, to one of his own 
family, " because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; 
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed." This is the peculiar and high province of 
faith. The ^'things which God hath revealed by his 
Spirit, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they 
entered into the mind of man." And though these 
things constitute no arbitrary demand on human credu- 
lity, they constitute a demand upon human confidence 
that is absolute. Nothing else can be a substitute for 
faith, while faith itself supplies the place of vision, and 
is a substitute for all other evidence* Here lies, not only 
the power, but the indispensable necessity, of this par- 
ticular act of the soul. It is a sort of vision, and comes in 
place of the evidence of the senses. It is what no other 
Christian grace can be — " the substance of things hoped 
for, and the evidence of things not seen." It does what 
nothing else can do, by uniting the soul to him who 
^^ of God is made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctifi- 
cation and redemption." It meets the Deity in the reve- 
lations he has made of himself in the person of his Son, 
and falls in with the nature and design of this wonderful 
redemption. It is in the mind and heart of man, what 
this method of redemption is in the mind and heart of 
God — its only true and proper counterpart. When 
brought together, they are like two detached parts of the 



126 FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

same machinery, exacty fitted to one another. While 
this redemption, in all its parts, commends itself to faith, 
faith, by indissoluble tenons and fastenings, becomes 
united to this redemption, inwrought in its deep founda- 
tions. 

Another reason why the Scriptures give this promi- 
nence to faith, rather than to any other grace, is, that it 
is the most complete and most emphatic expression of the 
Christian character. The place which the Cross occu- 
pies in the system of revealed truth, faith in the Cross 
occupies in experimental and spiritual religion. It is 
that peculiar act of the soul by which it takes hold of 
evidence that addresses itself to the heart, and by which 
the heart expands itself to all the affectionate, humbling, 
submissive and hallowed influences of the truth of God. 
The Cross as truly discloses the heart of the Deity as his 
intelligence, and is not more a revelation of the wisdom of 
God than of his love. While the intellect of the believ- 
er, therefore, assents to the great truths that are there 
revealed, the heart of the believer confides in the heart 
of the atoning Saviour. There are motives and argu- 
ments which the heart feels as well as the understand- 
ing ; nor is unbelief so much an error in judgment, as it 
is proof that the heart is not right in the sight of God. 
The faith of the Gospel is not that passive conviction that 
is constrained where there is no willing mind. There 
are some things which men cannot disbelieve if they 
were ever so much disposed, but the Gospel is not one of 
them. Or, to express the same thought in a diflferent 
form, there are some things which men cannot help be- 
lieving ; but there is no moral value in such a faith as 
this, nor is it at all indicative of the state of the heart. 
'^ Thou believest there is one God ; thou doest well : the 
devils also believe, and tremble." The faith of devils 



FAITH IN THE GllOSS. 127 

surely is not the faith of the people of God. They be- 
lieve in the facts and principles revealed in the Bible, 
because they cannot help believing them. They are none 
the better for believing them, because they see them. 
No man is any the better for believing that the sun shines 
when he sees it, or for believing that the whole is greater 
than its parts. No matter how unwilling he is to be- 
lieve, his reluctance is overcome by evidence, and, just 
like the devils, he is forced to believe, whether he will 
or no. 

But it is not so with regard to the faith of the Gospel. 
It is a very easy thing for men to reject the testimony 
which God has given concerning his Son. They are 
naturally and very strongly inclined to reject it. It con- 
tains principles that are at war with all their idolatry of 
self, with all their pride and love of sinning. Nor do they 
ever at heart believe it until their selfishness, and pride, 
and love of sinning have received a deadly wound from 
the Cross. The world around them are unbelievers, and 
it requires no small degree of moral courage, and self- 
denial, cheerfully and from the whole soul to receive 
that system of truth which most men scorn. The Scrip- 
tures, therefore, are careful to inform us, that ^' with the 
heart, man believeth unto righteousness," and that the 
faith which unites the soul to Christ possesses high and 
heaven-born properties. There is no atoning virtue in 
faith, but there is moral virtue in it ; and it is the most 
complete and emphatic expression of the Christian char- 
acter. It is not by a law of nature that men exer- 
cise it, but a law of grace. Unbelief wilfully rejects the 
testimony of God, and is the damning sin of the soul. 
Faith receives that testimony, makes it welcome, and 
cherishes it. It is the ripest and choicest fruit of the 
spirit. It is the consenting will, a will that confides in 



128 FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

God, a will that God requires ; and is, therefore, an act 
of obedience. It is the love of the truths which it re- 
ceives ; for this is the great distinction between a false 
and a true faith, the former believing what it hates, and 
the latter what it loves. God is its ultimate object, and 
therefore is it an expression of love to God. As the act of 
a mind that desires to be delivered from the power of 
sin, and for that purpose repairs to the great Saviour, it 
is a true expression of godly repentance. It is from its 
very nature, too, the most self-renouncing and humble of 
all graces. The great sentiment of faith is, that sal- 
vation, so far from being of works or any merit in the 
creature, is all of sovereign mercy — grace, mere grace, 
the riches of grace. Its prominent and inwrought im- 
pulse is, that the sinner has no pretensions to a justifying 
righteousness of his own ; that he is guilty and ill-deserv- 
ing ; that he has no claims, and throws himself wholly 
upon the righteousness of another. And, therefore, it is 
not only an humble grace, but a significant expression of 
deep humility of soul. Nor is it less an expression of that 
Christian submission which prefers the will of God to its 
own will ; for, in no act is the sovereignty of the great 
God more distinctly recognized than in the act of faith. 
God has his proper place then, and the sinner his : God 
has the throne, and the sinner is in the dust. There are 
no sorer struggles with the natural man, no severer con- 
flicts with flesh and blood, no fiercer warfare with the 
proud and self-righteous, the rebellious, obdurate, and 
obdurately impenitent heart, than that through which it 
is brought before it exercises the affectionate, the dutiful, 
the penitent, the humble, the submissive act of faith in 
the Cross. By nothing is the Christian character put to 
a severer test. The man who is enabled, in the face of 
this ungodly world, where the Cross of Christ is a stum- 



FAITH IN TIIE CROSS. 129 

bling block and foolishness, and in those varied con- 
ditions where his faith is tried, so to contend against his 
spiritual enemies, as to believe, and live by the faith of 
the Son of God, is, and shows himself to be, what Abra- 
ham, the father of the faithful w^as — the friend of God. 
The reason, therefore, is obvious why God has made 
faith in the Cross the condition of salvation. It is a 
plain and important principle in the divine government, 
that he cannot he reconciled to men so long as they remain 
his enemies* If they remain enemies to Azm, they are 
enemies to his kingdom, and enemies to all righteous- 
ness ; and as such, cannot be treated as his friends. It 
is a right principle, and for the Deity not to act upon it 
would be wrong. The divine nature, the divine law, 
and all the sacred designs of the Cross, necessarily ex- 
chide all such persons from the divine favor. The 
question, whether or not a man believes in Jesus Christ, 
is the test question^ and shows whether he is the friend 
of God, or 1^ enemy. Men who persuade themselves 
that they love God, and mourn for their sins, and rejoice 
in his government, are mistaken, unless they believe in 
Jesus Christ. Men who persuade themselves that they 
are religious men, and respect the divine authority, and 
delight to do God's will, are grossly deceived, unless 
from the heart they believe in Jesus Christ. They are 
not so compliant with their duty as they suppose. They 
are not such lovers of righteousness, and such respecters 
of religion and God's authoriry, as they profess to be. 
The proof of their wickedness lies in the fact, that they 
despise this great Messenger of his truth and grace, and 
will not honor the God of heaven by " believing on Him 
whom he hath sent." The Bible thinks very little of 
the religion of those who will not believe in the Son of 
God. If they were the friends of God, they would re- 
6* 



130 FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

ceive his Son. Every man '^ that hath heard and learned 
of the Father cometh unto me. If any man will come in 
his own name, him ye will receive ; I am come in my 
Father's name, and me ye receive not. The Father 
himself hath sent me, and ye have not his word abiding 
in you. I know you, that ye have not the love of God in 
you." If there is wisdom and rectitude, therefore, in that 
great principle of the divine government which makes 
a difference between the precious and the vile, there is 
reason for making faith the condition of salvation ; for 
they, and they alone, are good men who believe. 

There is another reason why faith holds this promi- 
nent place. Without the faith of the Gospel, it is im- 
possible, in the nature of things, that the hopes and blessed- 
ness of its redemption should be conveyed to the soul. The 
Cross of Christ was designed to convey pardon, peace, 
hope, joy, delight in every duty, and the vivid and 
strong expectation of eternal life. Faith receives these 
blessings, and faith alone. If it be said that the love of 
God, and a godly repentance, and a deep humiliation of 
soul before God, and unconditional submission to his 
will, constitute a state of mind that brings with it its 
joys, and that it is impossible to make that man unhappy 
who is in the exercise of such a state of mind ; if it be 
said, moreover, that there are thousands of instances in 
which men are conscious of these gracious exercises, who 
are not conscious of a trusting and peaceful confidence 
in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and therefore thai faith 
is not necessarily indispensable to the spiritual enjoy- 
ment ; I beg that these assertions may be examined. 
And I advert to them the more freely, because in former 
years I have given more weight to them than I now do. 
We go back to our last thought, and form issue with 
the objector, and say, that there is no love, no repent- 



FAITH IN THE CROSS. 131 

ance, no submission, and no obedience, where there is 
not an actual reception of Christ. Nor do we rest this 
position simply on the truths just now illustrated. There 
is no medium between accepting and rejecting the offers 
of God's mercy through his Son. If men reject hirrij 
their supposed graces are but a name ; for if they had 
the love of God in them, and truly humbled themselves 
before him for their iniquities, and possessed, in fact, a 
readiness to do his will, they would not reject his well- 
beloved Son. It is in vain that they profess lo love the 
Father and reject the Son ; to turn from their iniquities, 
and at the same time reject him who alone saves his peo- 
ple from their sins ; to profess an humble and contrite 
spirit, and turn away from him whose salvation is the 
sweetest expression of that spirit ; to be submissive to the 
will of God, and reject him who comes with a commis- 
sion from heaven to publish that will to men. They 
may have a sort of submission, but it is the submission 
of melancholy despair, and if it finds not its way to the 
Cross, will end in conscious rebellion. Men may have a 
sort of obedience without faith, but it is the obedience of 
servitude and terror, and will, ere long, break its chains. 
That they have anything of true love of God, is impos- 
sible ; for the Saviour himself being judge, there is no 
higher proof that they '' have not the love of God in 
them," than that they reject his Son. The truth is, that 
as there is no faith in Christ where there is no love to 
God, so there is no love to God where there is no faith 
in Christ. They spring up in the soul together, and the 
germinant principle of them is imparted when it is created 
anew in Christ Jesus. I have yet to learn that the 
love of God is ever shed abroad in the heart save in the 
view of the Cross. The obligation of men to love him, 
wholly and forever, were there no Gospel, and were they 



Jg^ FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

always under the curse, may not, most certainly, be 
called in question ; while it is equally true, that it is only 
under that dispensation of mercy, by our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that the power of the ever-blessed Spirit is im- 
parted to give birth to the love of God, and that the way 
of his doing this is through the instrumentality of that 
truth of which the Cross is the most emphatic expression. 
The true way of loving God is to believe in his Son, 
and the true way of believing in his Son is to love 
God. The carnal mind, which is enmity against God, 
does not believe in Christ ; neither does the unbeliev- 
ing mind, that rejects Christ, dismiss its enmity to God. 
Those who are under strong convictions of sin, and 
have recently passed from death unto life, do not stop to 
analyze their emotions ; while older saints, and those who 
have learnt to say, ^' It is not I that live, but Christ that 
liveth in me," know that they love most, when nearest 
the Cross. All the love to God, and all the obedience 
to his will, that ever existed in our fallen world, and 
which now exists, is to be attributed to the revelation of 
God in the person of his Son, and to a cordial reception 
of him as thus revealed. Take away the Cross of Christ, 
and you leave men under the curse of abandonment: 
God hides his face ; his throne is covered with darkness ; 
he is a consuming fire, and determined only to destroy. 
Away from the Cross, men are doomed to enmity, and 
to all the penal consequences of that enmity. While he 
relaxes not the obligation of loving him, God will not 
allow them the privilege of loving him, nor permit their 
woes to be alleviated by one emotion of complacent 
regard for his character, or benevolenoe toward himself. 
The true idea the Scriptures give of love to God is, that 
it is that affection which makes him the supreme goody 
nnd chief happiness and joy of the soul. And do we need 



FAITH IN THE CROSS. 133 

proof that men enjoy God, and make him their highest 
good and portion, only as he is accessible through Jesns 
Christ, and as faith fixes her eye upon him in the Gospel 7 
Far be it from me to desire to wound the weakest believer, 
or to discourage and depress those of little faith. I would 
much rather conclude that those who are thus supposed to 
have some gracious affections but no faith, take a partial 
and perverted view of their own case ; and that while they 
themselves may not be conscious of the actings of faith in 
Christ, and from a sinful shamefacedness are slow to 
acknowledge they possess it, lest they should profess more 
than they feel, they nevertheless possess a faith which is 
true and genuine, though small perhaps as a grain of mus- 
tard seed. This is no uncommon state of mind. Persons of 
this description are not so reluctant to believe, as they are 
afraid of believing. They are afraid of a blind credulity 
and presumption. They are looking for a faith that is 
strong and enduring, and do not expect to attain to it with- 
out darkness, and doubt, and difficulty. They would pre- 
scribe their own course, rather than cheerfully walk in that 
in which God is wisely and gently leading them. They 
are believers, but their faith lacks the vividness and 
strength which are fitted to make strong impressions of it 
on their own minds, and to produce that evidence and con- 
sciousness of it which they desire. The little peace and 
comfort which such persons enjoy in their love and their 
submission, they have actually found at theCross, and only 
there ; and the stronger their faith is, the more will they 
become partakers of the peace, and hope, and joy, which 
the Gospel imparts. Nor can they enjoy them except as 
they are thus conveyed. And this is one of the reasons 
why faith possesses the prominence which the Gospel 
gives to it. There is no principle of the Gospel I would 
not sooner abandon than this. The first duty of the 



134 FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

sinner is his highest privilege : it is to go to the Cross and 
be saved by Jesus Christ. In requiring men to become 
believers, God requires them to become, not merely holy 
men, but pardoned and happy men. The gospel would 
put them in possession of this salvation ; it would not 
withhold from them the fullness of its joys; it would shed 
upon their spirits the fragrance of its blessedness, and 
cheer them with its early blossomings, as well as the 
richer fruits of its latter harvest. It would plant in their 
path all the beauties of holiness, and fill their hearts with 
the joys of God's salvation. '' The kingdom of God is 
not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace and joy 
in the Holy Ghost." 

There is still another reason for the high place which 
the Scriptures assign to faith. It is because faith is the 
most powerful and energetic principle of action, " The 
chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever." 
This is God's design in creating, preserving and blessing 
him, and giving his Son to die for his redemption. To 
aim at this great end is due to God, due to ourselves, due 
to the church and the world. " Ye are bousrht with a 
price ; wherefore glorify God in your bodies and spirits 
which are his." If it is true that '' without faith it is 
impossible to please God," equally true is it that faith is 
the great principle of action which forms the Christian 
character to well-doing, and upon the highest model. Go 
with me to the Scriptures and see if it be not so. Is the 
Christian exposed to sin ; he has no such security as the 
^ shield of faith whereby he may quench all the fiery 
darts of the devil." Is he prone to be carried away by 
the spirit of the world ; ^ ' this is the victory that over- 
cometh the world, even your faith." Would he abound 
in works of righteousness ; " faith without works is dead, 
being alone," and " by works is his faith made perfect." 



FAITH IN THE CROSS. 135 

Would he cultivate purity of heart ; the way to do it is 
*' purifying his heart by faith." Would he be sanctified ; 
he is " sanctified by faith that is in Christ." Would he 
have fellowship with God ; he ^' has access by faith to 
this grace wherein he stands." Would he rise above 
the disheartening impression of his own insufficiency, 
and possess a state of mind that gives way to no depres- 
sion, and has no place for discouragement ; his language 
is, ''I can do all things through Christ who strengthen- 
eth me," He " walks by faith, and not by sight." He 
lives by faith, for '^ it is not he that lives, but Christ that 
liveth in him." Would he overcome difficulty and con- 
flict; " if he have faith as a grain of mustard seed," he 
shall say to mountains of difficulty, be rooted up and 
cast into the sea. The conscience is impressed, the heart 
influenced, the life controlled by faith. By the power of 
faith, the Christian becomes another man ; has new ob- 
jects of pursuit, and new aims and ends controlling his 
whole being. It is only under the influence of faith that 
men live to any good purpose. Even upon worldly and 
secular principles, faith, destitute as it is of spirituality, 
is a most powerful principle of action. Men who, in the 
common affairs of life, wait for the evidence of their senses 
or their personal experience before they act, have very 
little efficiency of character. They must often go for- 
ward relying upon the testimony of their fellow-men, 
and in the spirit of confidence. If we analyze the con- 
duct of mankind, or our own, we shall find that even 
this irreligious faith is the great stimulus to effort, and 
that where a man is so cautious as to have none of it, he 
never acts at all. How much rather, then, shall the 
faith of the Christian, relying as it does, with the most 
perfect certitude, upon the veracity of God, and the per- 
fect sufficiency of the great redemption, give force and 



136 FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

energy to his character. He lives by the *^ faith of 
things unseen." His faith has a foreseeing eye, lighting 
up all his subsequent course, throwing the interest and 
excitement of the present over the future, and urging him 
to live well and live for eternity. His faith terminates 
in great objects, and all is deception to it and a lie, 
that does not lead him to great pursuits. It is not 
broken cisterns that he now goes to, nor resources of 
earthly wisdom and strength to which he repairs. It is 
not a blind credulity that influences him, nor a vain and 
rash presumption ; but a satisfied faith in the promise of 
God. He does not throw away his reason when he comes to 
the Cross, but first satisfies his reason with the truth and 
reality of that great sacrifice, and then subjects it to faith 
in the divine testimony. He does not renounce present 
interests, nor the world, any farther than they counter- 
vail the claims of him who was crucified ; and where they 
do this, faith outweighs and overpowers them all. Other 
things influence him, but not as faith influences him. 
Faith extends its influence over his whole character, and 
in yielding to this influence, he forms a character which 
nothing else can form. Read the eleventh chapter of 
Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, and there mark the cha- 
racter and achievements of faith, expressing itself, too, 
only under a dispensation of types and prefigurations, and 
<Uike some sickly plant, nourished only under the 
shadow of better things to come." Faith was the dis- 
tinctive characteristic of the sacrifice oflfered by Abel, the 
first recorded sacrifice ever oflfered in this apostate world ; 
'^and by it, he being dead, yet speaketh." Faith was 
the heaven-descended attendant of Enoch while " he 
walked with God," and conducted him so gently, and 
with such invisible power, through the dark valley, that 
he did not see death. Faith directed Noah to the ark that 



FAITH IN THE CROSS. 137 

bore him above the delude to the shores of a new world. 
Faith threw her vivid light on the path of Abraham when 
^' he went out, not knowing- whither he went," and 
cheered the darkness of the hour when he offered up the 
child of promise, " accounting that God was able to raise 
him even from the dead." Faith gave reality to the 
hopes of Joseph, when in his last hours he " made men- 
tion of the departing of the children of Israel" for the 
land given to their fathers. Faith elevated the views of 
Moses above the honors of the Egyptian court, and en- 
abled him to '^ endure as seeing him who is invisible." 
Well does the apostle say, '^ time would fail him" to 
enumerate the achievements of faith. The high and holy 
character which it is the design of the Gospel to impart, 
cannot be possessed without giving faith preeminence, 
receiving, as it does, new impulses from every exercise 
of its power, and every view of the Cross. 

Would you possess this faith, it is to the Cross alone 
that we may direct you. Thither come, and as you 
look up, say with Job, '' I have heard of thee by the 
hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee ; where- 
fore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes !" 
Here there is a view of God that wins its way to the heart. 
Here the entrance of his word giveth light, and you may 
read the record, '^ There is now no condemnation to them 
that are in Christ Jesus." Here you may apprehend the 
Saviour as your surety and substitute, and may say, 
" Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is 
turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold God is 
my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid ; for the Lord 
Jehovah is my strength and my song ; he also is become 
my salvation." 



X38 FAITH IN THE CROSS. 

*' The moment a sinner believes, 
And trusts in his crucified God, 
His pardon at once he receives — 
Redemption in full, through his blood. 

" 'Tis faith that still leads us along, 
And lives under pressure and load ; 
That makes us in weakness more strong. 
And leads the soul upward to God. 

" It treads on the world, and on hell. 
It vanquishes death and despair 5 
And oh, let us wonder to tell, 

It wrestles and conquers by prayer. 

** Permits a vile worm of the dust 

With God to commune as a friend ; 
To hope his forgiveness as just, 
And look for his love to the end. 

** It says to the mountains, 'Depart,' 

That stand between God and the soul ; 
It binds up the broken in heart. 
And makes wounded consciences whole. 

•* Bids sins of a crimson-like die 

Be spotless as snow, and as white ; 
And raises the sinner on high. 
To dwell with the angels of light" 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE INQUIRING SINNER DIRECTED TO THE CROSS. 

It is no uncommon occurrence for persons of every age, 
and every rank, in human society, to look at the subject 
of rehgion with interest and solicitude. This always has 
been the case, to a greater or less degree, where the Cross 
of Christ is faithfully preached, and accompanied by the 
power of the Holy Spirit. Wherever the spirit of inquiry 
on this subject exists, it implies that the inquirer is sen- 
sible of his lost condition, and is seeking the way of life. 
He is no longer thoughtless and unconcerned ; he has 
done trifling with God and making light of sin, and is now 
awake, alive, and in earnest for the salvation of his soul. 
His iniquities are gone up over his head ; he has the 
evidence within himself that ''God is angry with the 
wicked every day," and he is ready to cry out with one 
of old, *' When I suffer thy terrors I am distracted." 
It is no feigned distress which he expresses ; *' The arrows 
of the Almighty stick fast within him, the poison 
whereof drinketh up his spirits." Although he feels the 
burden of his sins, and is conscious of his obligations to 
turn from them unto God ; yet, because he is not a con- 
verted man, he would, notwithstanding, fain '' break these 
bands asunder, and cast away these cords from him." 
There is no class of men more restive under a sense of 
moral obligation, than those who are convinced of sin, 



l^Q THE INQUIRING SINNER 

and, at the same time, are reluctant to forsake it — or, in 
other words, than those who are sensible of their lost con- 
dition as sinners, and who '' will not come unto Christ, 
that they might have life." Nothing deprives them of 
the favor of God but their own voluntary and obstinate 
unbelief; and this, though they are conscious it can no 
longer be defended, they do not cease to cherish. This 
is the great subject of controversy between them and 
their Maker. God claims their return to him through 
Jesus Christ; they no longer question either the equity 
or the graciousness of the claim, and yet they resist it, 
and resist it with all their hearts. God has decided that 
their unhumbled spirit shall bow to the Cross of his Son, 
or that they shall perish. They know that they can 
never change his purpose ; yet they will not bow. 
They are more and more sensible that *^itis a fearful 
thing to fall into the hands of the living God ;" yet 
they will not cast themselves into the arms of his bound- 
less, though sovereign mercy. They endeavor to stifle 
these convictions, but the hand of One stronger than the 
strong man armed is upon them, and they cannot escape 
the convictions which they thus endeavor to suppress. 
God holds them to the alternative of believing in Jesus 
Christ, or sinking to perdition ; and he holds their minds 
awake to this, their solemn position. This is the source 
t)f their distress, and in a mind under deep and strong 
conviction it is deep anxiety. " The spirit of a man may 
sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can 
bearl" To be sensible that they are in the hands of 
God, and yet to be unwilling to be in his hands — to be 
unwilling to be in his hands, and yet see that it is im- 
possible to break away from his government — to murmur 
and complain at the terms of salvation, and at the same 
time to be convinced that there is no ground for com- 



DIRECTED TO THE CROSS, 14^ 

plaint and murmuring- — is a state of mind like the tem- 
pestuous ocean, when its waters ^^ cast up mire and dirt.'' 

It is not unnatural that one in such a state should be 
moved to effort. Availing or unavailing, he is moved 
to effort ; nor is it possible that he should be at rest, under 
this load of conscious guilt. Conscience cannot resist the 
impression that there is some duty to be performed, in 
the neglect of which he must take up his abode with all 
the incorrigible enemies of God, and lie down in sorrow. 
He seeks some competent relief, and inquires if there is 
no hope for such a sinner as he. His language is intel- 
ligible and definite: '* What must I do to be saved? ^^ 
He wishes to know if there is any path in which he may 
walk, that will lead to eternal life. 

Men are not often placed in circumstances of more 
weighty responsibility, than when called to give directions 
to those who are thus earnestly seeking the salvation of 
their souls. I need not say, that they are strongly 
tempted, at such seasons, to comfort those who are dead 
in sin. But a little reflection will convince us that no 
direction should be given to the inquiring sinner, that 
affords the least relief to his conscience in the continued 
rejection of Jesus Christ. If he is ignorant, he should 
be instructed ; but when once the method of salvation is 
clearly set before him, he may not be comforted in the 
neglect of it. It is a mistaken view of the Cross that it 
speaks peace to the convinced, but unbelieving sinner. 
We ought not to wish to speak peace to him, but, while 
we affectionately set before him the fullness and all-suffi- 
ciency of Christ, and his unutterable tenderness and love, 
to render his condition more distressing, so long as he 
stays away from Christ. The history of experimental 
religion, in all ages, shows nothing more clearly, than 
that to tell convinced sinners the whole truth of God, is 



142 THE INQUIRING SINNER 

the most powerful means of their conversion. It is an 
unspeakable pleasure to be able to say to men who are 
wearying themselves to find their way to heaven, and 
who, like the Pharisees of old, fast and pray, and are 
going about to establish a righteousness of their own, 
while they refuse to subject themselves to the righteous- 
ness of God : There is a '' righteousness which is of 
faith, and not by the deeds of law." You are only 
making lies your refuge, and cleaving to that which God 
abhors, until, as prisoners of hope, you flee to this strong- 
hold. Yet, strange to say, the question has been gravely 
debated. Whether this is the true and only course to 
be adopted with those who are thus anxious for their 
salvation 1 Let us for a moment look at this practical 
and important question, and while we consider it, let us 
take our position as near as we can to the Cross of Christ, 
and hear what he says to men in this anxious state of 
mind. 

I am a preacher of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and 
one of my charge comes to me with the question, '' What 
shall I do to be saved ?" You are a parent, and your 
anxious child comes to you with this affecting inquiry. 
You are a teacher in the Sabbath School, and that Spirit 
that so often impresses the minds of the young, has visited 
your interesting charge, and they flock in numbers to you 
to inquire, " What shall I do to be saved ?" Now what 
is the answer which the Cross of Christ gives to this 
inquiry 1 We know the answer which Paganism would 
give : it would point the inquirer to the Ganges, or the 
Car of Juggernaut, and tell him, That is the way to 
heaven. We know the answer which Rome would give : 
it would tell him to repeat his prayers to the Virgin, to 
bow before the image of some canonized saint, to go to 
mass, and make liberal bcnofiictions to the church. But 



DIRECTED TO Trri CROSS. 143 

what is the answer which the Cross gives to his inquiry *? 
It will be said, perhaps, that as the guardian of sound 
morality, the Cross instructs such a man to reform his 
life^ and break off his habits of outward sin. If he has 
been vicious, he must become moral and virtuous ; if he 
has been profane, he must become devout ; if he has 
been careless, he must become solemn and serious. But 
the fact is, he himself is in advance of all such counsel, 
and has long been in the rigid practice of every moral 
virtue. But this does not satisfy him. It does not quiet 
his fears, nor silence the thunders of divine vengeance, 
nor relieve him of his burden, nor fill his heart with 
peace. His morality is rotten at the core ; and if it were 
ever so pure, could not relieve a conscience truly awake 
to a sense of sin. Following such counsel, the Ethio- 
pean might seem to have changed his skin, and the 
leopard his spots ; but the change would not be deep and 
thorough, and the subject of it would turn from his evil 
courses only from a slavish fear of God's displeasure. 

It may perhaps be said, that the Cross urges upon 
him a more rigid religious character^ and tells him, if 
he has not been baptized, to present himself for the ordi- 
nance of baptism ; if he has cast off fear and restrained 
prayer, to devote himself to the duties of the closet ; if he 
has neglected the Scriptures and the house of God, to be 
more punctual in his observance of the duties of the 
Lord's Day, and more familiar with the Scriptures ; if he 
has mingled with the gay world, to withdraw himself 
from its unhallowed dissipations and joys ; if he has neg- 
lected the table of the Lord, to commemorate the sacri- 
fice of his Divine Master at the Holy Supper. It is true 
that the Cross urges upon him all these duties ; but does 
it assure such a man, that in these outward services he 
will find peace ? We may be assured the Cross does not 



144 THE INQUIRING SINNER 

thus deny itself. There is not a little of this sort of re- 
ligion in the world, flowing from the impression that it 
atones for past transgressions, and merits heaven, because 
it is too good to be sent to hell. But without faith in the 
Saviour, all this is destitute of every element of holiness, 
and partakes of the character of the unsubdued and un- 
regenerated heart. These duties constitute the form of 
godliness ; they have their place and importance, and 
may well have praise of men. But those who never go 
beyond these things, will be disappointed when they 
enter into eternity. The admonition of the crucified one 
is, " Verily, I say unto you, except your righteousness 
exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye 
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
The anxious sinner is apt to be beguiled bj" such mis- 
taken and faithless counsels, and instead of fleeing to the 
stronghold, while a prisoner of hope, to betake him- 
self to these refuges of lies. But just so certainly as he 
rests in these mere outward observances, he stops short 
of the Cross, and his ^^ hope is as the spider's web." 

What then is the language of the Cross to the convinced 
and distressed sinner ? Let us turn to the Bible and see. 
When the anxious and distressed jailer of Phillippi in- 
quired of Paul and Silas, '' Sirs, what must I do to be 
saved?" they gave him this short and plain answer: '^Be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christy and thou shalt he saved. ''^ 
When the Saviour addressed men in this state of mind, 
his language was, '^ Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." When the 
Jews said unto him, *^ Wliat shall we do that we might 
work the works of God ? Jesus answered and said unto 
them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him 
whom he hath sent." Paul instructs the Church of 
Rome, that << the righteousness of God, without the law. 



DIRECTED TO THE CROSS. 145 

IS manifested, even the lighteousncss of God which is by 
faith in Jesus Christy unto all, and upon all them that 
believe.^' To the same persons he writes : " The right- 
eousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not 
in thy heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring 
Christ down from above : or, who shall descend into the 
deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. 
But what saith it 1 The word is nigh thee, even in thy 
mouth and in thy heart ; that is the word of faith which 
we preach ; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised 
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,^^ There is the 
most perfect simplicity in these instructions, because they 
disclose the method of salvation by the Cross. The Gos- 
pel is no complex and dark system ; nor is it wrapt up in 
so much mysticism, that the anxious inquirer need doubt 
as to the great duty which it requires. It is not a system 
of outward observances, nor anything in which a self- 
righteous spirit may boast. It is simply a spiritual faith 
in Jesus Christ, in distinction from everything else, and 
in opposition to that righteousness which is by the deeds 
of the law. There is but this one way, by which the 
burdened sinner can find relief, and be restored to the 
favor of God. It is by faith in Jesus Christ. 

It is not necessary to speak now of the nature of sav- 
ing faith, after what has been said in a previous chapter. 
It is not the faith of devils, who believe and tremble. It 
is not the faith of the imagination, whereby men some- 
times work themselves up to the persuasion that they 
belong to God's chosen ones, and that is cherished by 
dreams and visions, and every sort of extravagance and 
enthusiasm. It is the sober, intelligent, hearty " receiv- 
ing and resting upon Jesus Christ alone, for salvation, as 
he is Qffpred in the Gospel." It is to love Jesus Christ 
7 



J46 'I'lJfE i:^ QUIRING SINNER 

and trust in him. And this is what the Cross tells the 
inquiring sinner to do. This is the answer which it 
gives to this great question. It is as though he who 
hung upon it said to the inquirer, '' I must have your 
cheerful consent to the method of salvation which I have 
•-accomplished. I require the entire surrender of your 
immortal spirit, polluted and condemned as it is, into my 
hands, for all that it needs. No longer go about to 
establish a righteousness of your own by the deeds of the 
law ; but rather feel that you have no righteousness, and 
receive my salvation, as it is testified to a dying world. 
This do, and thou shait live. Thou shalt have an inter- 
est in that great atonement which was made for all thy 
sins ; thou shalt be delivered from the curse of the law 
by that blood, which not only answers every charge, and 
covers every sin, but effectually pleads on the behalf of 
those who from the heart renounce all other helpers, 
and confide in me as their Saviour !" 

Such is the counsel of the Cross to the inquiring sinner. 
He has, therefore, something to do in order to be saved ; 
and that is, to believe in .Tesus Christ. And until he docs 
this, he does nothing that has the least influence in 
changing his relations to the penalty of the divine law. 
No matter what regard he professes to have for God, and 
for religious services ; they are all polluted and avail 
nothing, until he believes on him whom he has sent. If 
he professes a readiness to do the will of God, here is a 
plain command that tests his readiness ; and if he is un- 
willing to obey him in this great particular, this turning 
point of his salvation, he is unwilling to obey him in 
anything. Very little is to be thought of that man's 
willingness to do his duty, and to do right, who demurs 
and excuses himself from going, as a lost sinner, to Jesus 
Christ for salvation. Christ comes with God's authority, 



DIRECTED TO THE CROSS. 147 

with God's Spirit, with all the attestations that heaven 
and earth can give ; and he comes full of truth and 
grace, with the glory of God beaming in his life and in 
his death ; and the first thing the anxious sinner has to 
do is to give him his confidence. Here he begins his 
obedience, and here begins his hope. He is anxious for 
the salvation of his soul, and professes to be willing to 
subject himself to any sacrifices — to pray, to read, to at- 
tend upon all the opportunities of religious instruction ; 
but in this one thing he hesitates, he defers, perhaps he 
complains. He cannot cast himself down before the 
Cross, and place confidence in the atoning blood shed on 
Calvary. He thinks to make himself better, and to be- 
come more worthy of God's approbation, before he comes 
to Christ ; whereas, he is only becoming worse, and the 
more worthy of God's everlasting displeasure, the longer 
he stays away. 

Let me not be misunderstood, when I say that the con- 
vinced sinner has something to do before he can find 
acceptance with God. As a work of the law, he has 
nothing to do ; and as a personal righteousness of his 
own, that shall commend him to God, he has nothing to 
do. But he has to obey this comprehensive precept, 
Believe in the Son of God. This surely is something. -It 
is not, indeed, an outward observance ; it is an act of the 
heart, and the only act by which the alienated heart 
returns to God, and in that only way which God has ap- 
pointed. Faith in Christ, though not a legal righteous- 
ness, is something that comes in the place of a legal 
righteousness, and justifies by virtue of that righteousness 
which it receives, and which is its object. Nor is it less 
the act and exercise of the sinner because " it is the gift 
of God." All right and holy acts of the heart are the 
gift of God ; but they are not less duties and acts on that 



148 THE INQUIRING SINNER 

account. Faith is an act to which the sinner is moved 
and influenced by the Holy Spirit ; but it is not, for this 
reason, less an act, or less a reasonable service. It is he 
himself who believes, though God enables him to believe. 
His faith is his own, though God gives it. The language 
of the Cross to the inquiring sinner, therefore, is, '^ Re- 
pent and believe the Gospel." It calls upon him to 
trust in this Mighty Saviour ; to believe that he is just, 
while he justifies ; to be satisfied that he is able to save 
to the uttermost, all that come unto God by Jesus Christ ; 
and, in the strength and preciousness of this persuasion, 
to commit his guilty soul to him, to be presented fault- 
less before the throne. What else shall he do '? where 
else shall he go ? to whom else shall he look 1 He looks 
within himself, and finds no helper ; he looks abroad 
upon his fellow creatures, and '' miserable comforters are 
they all." It costs him many a painful struggle, and 
many a conflict with flesh and blood, and many an aban- 
doned pretension to self-righteousness, to feel and confess 
his inability to save himself, to be conscious that he has 
no claims, and, letting go every other hold, to throw 
himself upon the Author and Finisher of his salvation. 
But this he must do ; and not until he does this, does he 
give God the throne, and take his own proper place in 
the dust. 

It is to this lowly and confiding spirit, therefore, that 
the Gospel directs the man who inquires, '' What must I 
do to be saved ?" It would fain attract him to the foot- 
stool of mercy, and draw him by its cords of love to him 
who was " lifted up from the earth." The Cross has no 
counsels to give him that may be safer, or more easily 
followed ; it has no other counsels at all. And with this 
language of the Cross, the whole scope and spirit of the 
Bible concur, uniformly and everywhere urging, if not 



DIRECTED TO THE CROSS. 149 

the particular act of believing, the spirit that is necessa- 
rily expressive of the faith of the Gospel. ''Repent ye, 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand j" — " Repent and 
believe the Gospel ;" — " He that believeth shall be saved, 
and he that believeth not shall be damned;" — " Repent 
and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins ;" — " Repent ye therefore, 
and he convejied, that your sins may be blotted out ;'^ — 
'^ Testifying to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance 
toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Such 
is the uniform language of the Bible. The sacred writers 
never call on men to t7y to believe in Christ, but to believe 
in him. They never counsel them to resolve to believe, 
but to believe. No matter to whom they address them- 
selves, whether to the learned or the unlearned, or to 
men in pagan, Jewish, or Christian lands, their great 
aim, and that without ambiguity, is to urge the duty, 
and that without delay, of confiding in the eflicacy of the 
Cross. And who does not see that such counsels are 
every way reasonable, and commend themselves to the 
conscience of the anxious inquirer ? 

Faith in the Cross is right in itself, and the duty which 
every man ought to perform who is acquainted with the 
method of salvation which it reveals. Let the method 
of redemption by the Cross of Christ be intelligibly ex- 
hibited to the mind of a pagan ; let the nature of faith 
be properly defined, and clearly described ; and his con- 
science will feel the obligation of believing, and of falling 
in with that redemption. No one feels more deeply that 
he is without excuse for not believing, than the awakened 
and convinced sinner. He knows that it is right for him 
to perform this great duty. To tell him so — to tell him 
so solemnly and affectionately, and to give him no relief 
from performing it, and no peace and comfort until it is 



150 THE INQUIRING SINNER 

performed, makes him feel just as the Spirit of God makes 
him feel. The work in which the Spirit of God is en- 
gaged with him, is to produce and sustain the impression 
in his mind, that his first duty is to believe in Jesus ; and 
to tell him anything else, is to oppose the merciful ope- 
rations of the Holy Spirit upon his mind. There is nothing 
in the world, which is half so reasonable for the anxious 
sinner to do, as to dismiss his mad idolatry of self, and 
come and sit at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right 
mind. You may direct him to something else besides the 
Cross, but in doing so, you only prolong and implicitly 
justify his unbelief. You take part with him against 
the imperative claims of his Saviour ; and if he loses 
his conviction, his blood may be required at your hands. 
Let it not be forgotten, that such a man is all the v/hile 
growing worse or better. That he is not growing better 
is apparent from the fact that he stays away from Christ. 
His external conduct may be better, but his heart is con- 
stantly growing worse ; and if you direct him to any- 
thing short of Christy what do you implicitly do, but tell 
him he need not now go to him 1 You do not mean to tell 
him this ; but is not this the tendency and impression of 
your directions, and are they not at variance with the 
claims of the Cross ? The effect upon his mind is the 
same as though you had relieved him from the present 
obligation of believing the Gospel, and had more than 
intimated that it is a duty which God does not require 
that he should perform. You make him feel as 
though he were doing very well in rejecting the testi- 
mony which God has given concerning his Son. 

More than this : when the Cross directs tliQ anxious 
sinner to believe in the Lord Jesus, it meets the exigencies 
of his awakened mind. It is a " word in season to him 
that is weary." It satisfies his understanding ; it satisfies 



DIRECTED TO THE CROSS 15 i 

his conscience ; it leaves him without excuse ; it allures 
him to the mercy-seat, there to '' smite upon his breast, 
and say, God be merciful to me, a sinner !" He is 
oppressed with the weight of his sins, and asks you what 
he shall do. Does not the affecting inquiry deserve a 
satisfactory reply 1 You hesitate to say to him, that his 
first business and paramount duty, and the only safe 
course for him in time and eternity, is to repent and 
believe the Gospel ; and therefore you tell him to seek 
and to strive, and to do as well as he can, without be- 
lieving. Just as well might the man who was bitten by 
the fiery serpents in the wilderness, have looked down 
upon his wounds, and endeavored to find healing by 
plastering his mortal sores, without looking to the brazen 
serpent which Moses lifted up. If the sinner's con- 
science is fully aw^ake, this will not satisfy him. He has 
done all this, and persevered in it to weariness, and still 
finds no comfort, but is dead in trespasses and sins. He 
does not ask you what he shall do to become acquainted 
with his responsibility, or what he shall do to cherish his 
convictions. He wants to knoAV what he shall do to be 
saved. Persons in the last stages of conviction are more 
than ever, and more than all others, convinced of the 
entire sinfulness of all their religious performances, and 
their. utter inefficiency to give them peace of mind. They 
feel that in all the means of grace they are using, they 
make no approximation to the salvation they need ; and 
it has become a very grave question with them, whether 
they are not the more guilty by all the light they enjoy, 
and whether their convictions themselves will not prove 
a savor of death unto death. There is wisdom and 
appropriateness, therefore, in the instructions of the Cross. 
You may tell such a man that his fears are groundless, 
but he does not believe you. You may tell him to read 



152 THE INQUIRING SINNER 

the Scriptures and to pray often. But he replies, " I have 
done so — for weeks and months I have done so ; but God 
is a wilderness to me, and all his ordinances are a desert 
where no water is. I find no relief in them all, but am 
still a guilty, miserable sinner ; my cup is full, and 
nothing but forbearing mercy keeps me from the pit." 

Now the Cross enters into the feelings of such a man, 
and meets the exigencies of his condition. There, amid 
convulsions that shook the earth, and darkness that put 
out the sun, on that Cross the prayer was uttered, 
'' Fsiihex forgive them, for they know not what they do!" 
It foresaw the gall of bitterness which the anxious would 
drink, and the bonds of iniquity under which the con- 
vinced would groan ; and he who hung upon it drank 
that bitter cup, and felt those galling chains. It was 
planted in the way where wicked men were traveling, 
only to make their bed in hell, and on purpose to stop 
them in their mad career. Under the false glare of 
ill-advised counsels and a self-righteous heart, the anx- 
ious sinner has missed it, and gone beyond this city of 
refuge. Mercy calls to him to fm-n before he is overtaken 
by the Avenger of blood. It admonishes him that he is 
going away from the only hiding-place, and that he may 
not lose an hour before he comes back to be reconciled to 
the Avenger through atoning blood. The Cross itself, 
with its free and full salvation, not more meets his 
exigencies as a perishing sinner, than the claims of 
the Cross on his submission, his love, his confidence, 
meet the exigencies of his present state of mind. They 
urge upon him to repent and believe the Gospel, and he 
feels the urgency of the claim. They plead with him, 
^'Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the 
day of salvation ;" now, while the spirit strives, while 
conscience is sensitive, and ''all things are ready;" and 



DIRECTED TO THE CROSS. 153 

he feels the pressure of their demands, and lays his hand 
upon his mouth. They speak no peace to him so long 
as he stays away from Christ ; but all peace, all hope, 
all hght, and comfort, and joy, in believing. Nothing 
meets the exigencies of such a state of mind, but the 
simple, unabated, unrelaxed direction of the Cross, to 
believe on him who was crucified. This meets it, and no 
sooner does it receive a fitting response from the sinner's 
heart than he begins his everlasting song. 

It is not, on the one hand, the design of the Cross to 
bring down the method of salvation to the level of the 
sinner's corrupt inclinations ; nor, on the other, to mag- 
nify the difficulties in the way of his being saved. It is 
no system of penances and pilgrimages, of ablutions and 
immolations ; nor, which is just as difficult, is it a 
system of self-righteousness. It is a system of faith, re- 
quiring simply that the sinner should abandon every 
other refuge, and hope, and effort, and, from the heart, 
receive the testimony, that " God has given us eternal 
life," and that ^' this life is in his Son." It makes the 
way of salvation plain. It does not trifle with the sins 
and miseries of men by directing them to an unin- 
telligible method of mercy. Men may view this method 
of mercy through a perverted medium ; they may ob- 
scure it by their unbelief; they may throw obstacles in 
the path, even by their own honest efforts to make them- 
selves fit to become its objects ; but they are obstacles of 
their own creating. Mulitudes become discouraged in 
seeking eternal life, and finally perish, by supposing it 
a more difficult thing to be saved than it actually is. 
With a certain class of minds, this is one of the great 
artifices of the subtle adversary. God gives with free- 
ness ; he gives with strange liberality ; he loves to give 
eternal life to all who accept his Son. " Hearken unto 



154 ' THE INQUIRING SINNER 

me," says he, " ye that are stouthearted and far from 
righteousness; behold, I bring near my righteousness^ 
and my salvation shall not tarry!" And salvation is 
brought near. Here at the foot of Calvary, and by all 
the love and mercy of the Cross, the God of heaven en- 
treats you to '' look and live." He does not require 
you to become your own Saviour, but ratjier to cease 
from this vain and disheartening effort, and be saved by 
him who bled for your redemption. 

That which renders the condition of the awakened 
and anxious so critical a condition, is, that they reject a 
salvation which is clearly revealed to their own minds, 
^' To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to 
him it is sin." Those who see and understand the way 
of salvation by Christ, have no excuse for rejecting it — 
no, not for an hour. The difficulty of accepting it is not 
diminished by delay. If there were any course of pre- 
requisite labor that would render the duty of accepting it 
more easy, more certain, or more safe, there would be 
some semblance of reason for delay. But it is both easier 
and safer to accept it the first moment it is understood, 
than it ever will be afterwards. There is more reason, 
more conscience, more peace of mind, more of God and 
heaven in accepting, than in rejecting it. So far from 
anything being gained by delay, the difficulties in the 
way of believing always gain strength and obduracy by 
procrastination. The Cross testifies to men of every age, 
every character, every condition, undelayed repentance 
toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. His 
language to them is, Fallen, as you are by your in- 
iquity, '^ the Son of Man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost." The voice of this Son of Man to them 
is, '^ Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man 
hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him 



DIRECTED TO THE CROSS. 155 

and sup with him, and he with me." When will the 
anxious inquirer open his heart to this condescending and 
heavenly guest? When will he enjoy this rich, this 
blood-bought banquet 7 When, if not now ? When will 
he turn his back upon the wilderness, where he is 
perishing with hunger, and go to his Father's house, 
where there is bread enough and to spare, if not now ? 
When, if not now^ will he look on him whom he has 
pierced, and mourn, and go, Avith a broken, bleeding 
heart, to the Cross ? I am warranted in bringing this in- 
quiry distinctly before the mind of every awakened 
sinner who reads these pages ; and I ask him, if he is 
unprepared for this reasonable duty now — a duty which 
God the Spirit is now urging on his conscience with so 
much tenderness and solemnity, that the only alternative 
is life or death — when he will perform it 1 When 1 If 
he hesitates, the reason for this hesitation, and the only 
reason, is, that if he is not willing to perform it now, he 
is not now willing to perform it at all. The Cross ad- 
dresses such a man with great and peculiar directness. 
He sees that he is lost — lost to himself, lost to God, lost 
to heaven, irrecoverably and eternally lost, if he re- 
mains an unbeliever in Jesus. And the language of the 
Cross to him is full of tenderness. He who there hung 
and expired, " the just for the unjust," that he might 
bring him unto God, says to the agitated and trembling, 
the distressed and desponding inquirer, '^ It was for thee 
I died ; I bore thee on this heart of love, when I gave up 
the ghost!" Oh, then, thou fearful, go and cast this 
burden at the foot of his Cross. Be no longer faithless, 
but believing. This do and thou shalt live. The God 
of grace, for his name's sake, shall blot your iniquities 
as a cloud, and your transgressions as a thick cloud. 
The God of faithfulness shall carry on the work he 



156 THE INQUIRING SINNER, &c. 

has begun, and perfect it to the day of his coming. 
He shall guide you by his counsel, and keep you as 
the apple of his eye. He shall go with you up to 
the chamber of death, and when flesh and heart shall 
fail, shall be the strength of your heart and your portion 
forever. In that hour of darkness and conflict, he will 
still direct your fading eye to his Cross, where the dark- 
ness, the sorrow and the defeat were his, that the light, 
the joy and the victory might be yours. And Avhen you 
look down into the grave, it shall no longer be with sad- 
ness, but with the confidence that your flesh shall rest 
in hope, and that he will raise you incorruptible and im- 
mortal. 

And now, if in the unbelief of your own minds, you 
still press the question, ''What shall I do to be saved?" 
I have no other answer to give, than '* Believe in the 
Lord Jesus." I frankly confess I know no other, nor 
do I wish to know. The Cross knoAvs no other. He 
whose love and mercy are literally infinite has no greater 
love and mercy than this. There is ''no other name 
given under heaven among men whereby you must be 
saved but the name of Jesus Christ." There are other 
names, but they have no influence in the court of heaven. 
There are other ways, but they conduct to the cham- 
bers of death. Perish you must, and ought, if you 
come not to him. O Saviour ! thou who alone art the 
refuge of the guilty, " to whom shall we go but unto 
thee. Thou hast the word of eternal life, and we know, 
and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the 
living God !" 



CHAPTER X. 

A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

In vindicating" the claims of the Cross, I have been 
more anxious to illustrate and enforce the great truths 
which it discloses, than to reply to the cavils of those who 
contend with their Maker. Where the truth is clearly 
made out, it is enough for us to say to every objector, 
"- Who art thou, O man, that repliest against Godl" I 
do not mean by this to say, that the truth of God shuns 
investigation; for the more clearly it is exhibited and 
understood, the more certainly will it appear to be capa- 
ble of the most satisfactory vindication. Where the 
minds of men, therefore, are honestly embarrassed in 
regard to it, there is an obligation, so far as it can be 
done, to remove this embarrassment; and more espe- 
cially, where, in endeavoring to remove it, the opportu- 
nity is presented of exhibiting truth that has a practical 
bearing upon the conscience. 

Such is the nature of the objection to be considered in 
the present chapter. The Cross of Christ proposes to 
deliver, and actually does deliver, all who believe in it 
from eternal punishment. It is a redemption which 
assumes that the sinner deserves eternal death. Men have 
no difficulty in believing that they are sinners, and deserve 
punishment ; but they have no inward sense of such a 
measure of ill-desert as indicated by the Gospel, and they 



X58 ^ STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

cannot feel that it would be right and just in God to inflict 
upon them this terrible doom. They have not, perhaps, 
so much the spirit of murmuring and complaint against 
the doctrine of future and eternal punishment, as of 
doubt and fear in relation to their own inward experience 
toward this great truth. No man is qualified to contem- 
plate such a subject without strong suspicions of himself, 
nor without feeling, ai every step of his inquiries, that he 
is exposed to come to false conclusions. May He, whose 
Spirit alone can guide the writer and the reader into all 
truth, graciously direct and influence both their minds to 
those convictions which alone magnify the salvation of 
the Cross ! 

It will not be denied that the doctrine of future and 
eternal punishment^ as revealed in the Bible ^ is a truth 
which is necessary to be believed, in order to true faith in 
Jesus Christ. This position is most certainly in keeping 
with the theory of divine truth, and, so far as my know- 
ledge extends, with the experience of mankind. I have 
never known a Universalist, wlio, in other respects, gave 
any evidence of piety. As well might every other truth 
be displaced from the sacred page, as this. Awful as it 
is, it is recorded as on tablets of stone, and written with 
the finger of God. This is one of the great truths of 
natural religion, which are confirmed by a supernatural 
revelation. One great object of this revelation is to open 
more clearly to the view of men the scenes of the eternal 
world ; to unfold the great catastrophe of this sublunary 
state of things, and disclose those glorious and those fear- 
ful retributions, which make up the history of eternity. 
There is a strong presentiment of future punishment, 
even in the minds of those who are not thus enlightened. 
The belief of the divine justice has prevailed in every 
age and country. The history of the heathen world 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 159 

abounds in facts that indicate the belief that God will 
not permit the wickedness of men to escape with impu- 
nity. The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, 
regards this belief as one of the laws of natural con- 
science. After describing the moral degradation of the 
Gentile nations, he speaks of them as carrying within 
their own bosoms this strong and inevitable conviction : 
*' Who, knowing the just judgment of God, that they 
which commit such things are worthy of death,''^ This 
voice of reason and conscience is echoed in the Scriptures ; 
nor is it possible to resist the force of their instructions. 
They explicitly predict a future state of being, where the 
'' worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched ;" where 
is the ^' blackness of darkness forever;" where there is 
eternally ascending the smoke of torment. They speak 
of the impassable gulf, and the " second death," from 
whence there is no reprieve. Nor is this doctrine one of 
those mysterious truths which cannot be understood. It 
is not like the unfathomable nature of the Deity ; it has 
no such incomprehensibleness thrown around it, as in- 
vests the doctrine of the Trinity, or the doctrine of the 
Son's Incarnation, or the undiscovered reasons of the 
eternal and unchangeable decrees of God. It is a plain 
and intelligible doctrine, revealed without concealment 
and without reserve ; nor is there anything in it which 
the mind of man cannot reach, except that it penetrates 
into a boundless eternity. Nor, like some facts revealed 
in the Scriptures, does it resolve itself into the will of God 
as its ultimate reason, but is always represented as the 
claim of his righteous government, and as called for by 
the sin of man. Nor is it revealed as one of the minor 
and less important doctrines of the Bible, but one which 
can be impaired only by undermining the fabric on which 
the whole Gospel rests. It is in every view fundamental 



160 A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED 

to the Christian system, essential to the Gospel, and 
necessary to its existence. If this doctrine he denied, 
the denial would, in its legitimate consequences, subvert 
the whole design of salvation by grace through the great 
Redeemer. If men do not truly deserve future and eternal 
punishment, then is there no gi^ace in saving them ; for 
grace consists in saving men, not from undeserved, but 
from deserved misery. If we could make the hypothesis 
that they were innocently exposed to the calamity of 
perdition, and rescued from it by the Gospel, yet would 
there be no grace in the deliverance, unless they truly 
and properly deserved the damnation of hell. If the con- 
verse of this be true, then did the Son of God become 
incarnate, and suffer and die on the Cross, to satisfy the 
claims of an unrighteous law, and to rescue men from 
an oppressive and unjust sentence. So that, however 
perplexing this truth may appear, it is the doctrine which 
explains the whole Gospel, which shows why it is neces- 
sary and what it is, and explains and sets in its true light, 
and assigns its proper place and importance to every other 
truth inwoven with the method of man's redemption. 

It may perhaps serve to obviate the difficulty we are 
considering, to inquire into the true meaning and import 
of this truth itself. Men may be embarrassed on the 
subject of future punishment, by not clearly perceiving 
those great principles of rectitude on which it proceeds. 
Of one thing we may be satisfied — that God will not, and 
cannot do wrong. His government is a righteous and 
equitable government. " Is God unrighteous ? God for- 
bid ! How, then, shall he judge the world ?" Under a 
righteous government, none can be punished more than 
they deserve. They may be rewarded beyond their 
merits, as a matter of grace ; but they cannot be punished 
beyond their deserts, as a matter of justice. It were no 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 161 

more consistent with the moral rectitude of God to punish 
the innocent, who do not deserve to be punished at all, 
than to punish the guilty more than they deserve to be 
punished. This is the intuitive decision of every man's 
conscience, whether he be young or old, enlightened or 
unenlightened, in Christian or in Pagan lands. None 
question the propriety and rectitude of some punishment 
for sin; and with as little reason may they question the 
propriety of punishing the offender in proportion to his 
demerit, or according to impartial and even-handed jus- 
tice. This is the true doctrine of future punishment ; the 
Scriptures reveal no other. All are not punished alike, 
but in exact proportion to their ill-desert. Should the 
time never come that the wicked have suffered all that 
the}^ deserve to suffer, it will be because justice demands 
that their punishment should never cease. 

The dilficulty in relation to future and eternal punish- 
ment, is not, therefore, that it is unrighteous to punish 
men as much as they deserve, but in the fact that all do 
not see how they deserve the fearful and everlasting pun- 
ishment threatened in the Bible. The issue is a most 
grave and serious one. When we have shown that the 
punishment which God inflicts is everlasting, and that 
God himself is righteous, we can do little more than 
leave the objector to make his cause good at the bar of 
eternal justice. Men are not satisfied with the truth that 
they deserve God's wrath and curse, both in this life and 
that which is to come. Objections to it are met with 
almost ever^-TX'here, and from almost all classes of men ; 
from the subtil and bold Universalis!, who denies it ; 
from the alarmed and awakened sinner who fears it ; 
and even from some who, while they acquiesce in it, 
and humbly receive it on the divine testimony, see it in a 
" temperature of mingled light and obscurity," and are 



X62 ^ STUMBLIXG-BLOCK REMOVED. 

looking for clearer and more satisfactory solutions of it in 
the more luminous disclosures of the eternal world. To 
not a few, it remains in impenetrable obscurity, with 
darkness for its habitation, and its pavilion thick clouds. 
They cannot connect with it those reasons with which 
it is connected in the divine mind, and can only say, 
'^ It is a great deep;" and in their humblest contem- 
plations of it, exclaim, '^ How unsearchable are his judg- 
ments, and his ways past finding out!" 

It is no uncommon occurrence for men to complain of 
temporal judgments^ and to inquire, what they have done 
to provoke the Most High to visit them, as he has done 
in his anger 1 Nor is it any extraordinary event for them, 
in some subsequent period of their history, to be fully 
convinced that their complaints Vv^ere groundless, and 
that they deserve the judgments which God has inflicted. 
They have come to more matured and just impressions 
of themselves, and no longer wonder why a holy God 
should look upon them with displeasure. The more 
seriously men reflect upon what God is, and what they 
themselves are, the fewer difliculties will they have in 
regard to eternal punishment. The views and feelings 
of different persons on this whole subject are very vari- 
ous, and sometimes strangely inconsistent. There are 
those who find no difficulty in seeing that other men 
deserve this tremendous penalty ; but they cannot see 
that they themselves deserve it. And there are those 
who have no diflliculty in seeing that they themselves 
deserve it ; while they have never been so clearly con- 
vinced as they desire to be, that others^ and all, deserve it. 
There is no subject in relation to which they are more 
exposed to practice great self-deception. A deep sense of 
personal ill-desert is a most humbling, mortifying and 
withering thought ; it makes the proud and self-compla- 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 163 

cent mind of man stoop ; it bows and crushes his lofty- 
spirit, and he resists it as long as he can. It is among 
the melancholy proofs of human apostacy, that no train 
of reflections is more unwelcome than that which is con- 
nected with his ill-desert; which impresses a strong con- 
viction of guilt, and furnishes alarming presages of 
deserved wTath. It is not so much the apprehension of 
calamity and suffering from which the mind revolts, 
as that degrading sense of shame that comes upon it, 
because it must bear the hlame as well as the w^oes of 
evil-doing. The practical difficulties which attend the 
doctrine of eternal punishment, arise from inadequate 
impressions of ill-desert. A strong sense of ill-desert 
not only prepares the mind to contemplate the eter- 
nal punishment of the wicked as a righteous measure 
of the divine government, but is inseparable from a con- 
viction of its rectitude. Where this impression exists, a 
man not only sees that God is angry with him, but that 
he has just reason to be angry. It is a remarkable fact, 
that when once the mind possesses a deep impression of 
ill-desert, it is a permanent impression ; nothing can take 
it away. It may be doubted whether it can be taken 
away, either in this world, or that which is to come. No 
man ever undertook a more hopeless task than to mea- 
sure the depth of his own ill-deservings ; nor does he 
know that any line can measure it but eternity. If he 
was ill-deserving yesterday, he is still more ill-deserving 
to-day, and will be still more so to-morrow ; and fifty, an 
hundred, a thousand years hence, if he continues in sin, he 
will be more ill-deserving still. After all his efforts he will 
find it impossible for him to fix upon any period in his fu- 
ture history in which he will cease to be ill-deserving, or 
in which a sense of his ill-desert will pass away. It is 
not wonderful, therefore, that men feel embarrassment in 



164 A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

regard to the future punishment of the wicked, who have 
no just impressions of their ill-desert. It is only by a 
profound submission of the soul to a sense of its ill-desert, 
offensive and repugnant as it may be to the pride and 
peace of man, that he learns that God is just when he 
judges, and clear when he condemns. 

But whence his repugnance to a sense of ill-desert? 
It is not necessary to go far in order to answer this in- 
quiry. Ill-desert is that which is blameable and punish- 
able in moral conduct. A sense of it arises from a sense 
of sin. God punishes men because they are sinners; and 
he punishes them forever, because their wickedness is so 
great, and their sin so exceedingly sinful, that eternal 
punishment is the true and proper expression of his dis 
pleasure. The true reason for his displeasure against 
sin is not because he is afraid that it will injure himself , 
for he is inj&nitely above it, and can and will make it 
subservient to his own purposes. Nor is it because he is 
afraid that it will injure his kingdom, and that his holy 
empire will receive any ultimate detriment from it. 
These tendencies he will restrain and counteract, and 
finally turn them to good account. He punishes it be- 
cause it is sin ; because it is hateful, and is, and must 
forever remain, displeasing to his pure and holy mind. 
Sin is the only thing in the universe that does displease 
him, and the sinner is the only being in the universe that he 
hates and will punish. He does not punish the winter's 
cold, nor the summer's heat, nor the pestilence, nor the tor- 
nado, nor the wild beasts of the desert, though they may 
spread desolation and death over the habitations of men ; 
because, lamentable as these evils may be, they are not 
sinful : they indicate no inward wickedness, and call for 
no expressions of his displeasure. They do not deserve, 
and are not the proper objects of punishment. But 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 165 

when man sins^ he makes himself vile, odious, and ill- 
deserving- ; he draws doAvn upon him the displeasure of 
that great and pure Being, in whose sight the heavens 
are unclean. Men have no just sense of their ill-desert, 
therefore, because they have no just sense of their sins. 
They are deeply concerned to have just impressions of their 
wickedness ; but when you look over the world, through 
all climes, all ages, all classes of men, and within your own 
bosoms, you nowhere find those who have a, just and pro- 
per sense of their wickedness. It may be doubted whether 
a true and just sense of it would not be more than the 
human mind could endure. I have seen persons who had 
very strong views of their own sinfulness ; but they were 
fearful spectacles of suffering, and more like some vision 
of the infernal regions than scenes usually beheld on this 
earth. The people of God often have very deep impres- 
sions of their sinfulness, but the agony produced by them 
is chastened and relieved by believing views of the 
Cross. And not unfrequently they themselves find great 
difficulty in coming to any such views of it as make the 
Cross of Christ precious to them at all times. They are 
free to acknowledge this difficulty, and are often heard 
to say, " Make me to know my transgression and my 
sin." — '' Who can understand his errors ! cleanse thou me 
from secret faults !" Sin disguises itself and conceals 
its nature. It has a powerful, subtil and sophistical ad- 
vocate in every man's heart to plead its cause, and hide 
its deformity ; and if this is true of good men, how em- 
phatically is it true of the wicked. With all its nauseous 
poison, to a corrupt and depraved mind, sin is always 
sweet and palatable. Monster as it is, it never shows it- 
self in all its true deformity, or wears its own proper garb. 
It is forever calling itself by false names ; or transform- 
ing itself into an angel of light ; or tasking its ingenuity 



IQQ A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

for some specious apology, some plausible excuse, by 
which it may be palliated. Even with all the light which 
the word of God has thrown upon the aggravated char- 
acter of human wickedness, wicked men never see it in 
any degree as it is. They do not believe what God him- 
self has said concerning it ; they view with a jealous eye 
the descriptions he has given of their hearts ; and not a 
few repel them as a libel upon their character. No ; men 
have no just impressions of their wickedness. They 
think not of its intrinsic turpitude ; they look not to the 
fountain of it within ; they count not its numbers, nor 
measure its aggravations ; they follow it not into its 
deep retirement and dark secrecy ; they dream not of its 
nameless forms of omission and commission, of its utter 
want of affectionate and dutiful regard for God, and 
contempt and abuse of his authority and goodness. 
They have little self-inspection, and therefore discover 
no serious ground for self-reproach. The mind, like the 
eye of man, sees everything else more clearly than it- 
self. No man indeed ever arrived to any just view of 
his sins by the mere process of human reasoning, or by 
anything short of the illuminating and convincing power 
of God's Spirit. '' When the Spirit of truth is come, 
he shall convince the world of sin,' ^ 

Here, then, we find the cause of much, if not of all 
the embarrassment men feel in respect to future and 
eternal punishment. The}^ have no just impression of 
their ill-desert ; and because they have no adequate sense 
of sin and their own sinfulness, their embarrassment is 
always relieved just in the measure in which their 
understandings are illuminated, their consciences recti- 
fied, and their hearts affected, by a sense of sin. 

Whence then is it that men find it so difficult to ha\'e 
just conceptions of their sin ? There are several reasons 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. IQJ 

for this fact that will occur to every reflecting mind. 
They themselves are sinners. It is impossible they should 
judge impartially on such a subject. They are the inter- 
ested parties. They are sitting in judgment on their own 
case, which the common sense of mankind everywhere 
affirms they are not qualified to do. In human affairs, 
it is the appropriate business of the law to fix the ill-desert 
of crime ; and it is the appropriate business of impartial 
men, appointed by the law, to decide the fact whether 
this ill-desert attaches itself to the accused individual. If 
a human legislature, composed of Sabbath-breakers, were 
to enact laws which define the ill-desert of Sabbath- 
breaking ; or if a legislature of gamblers, or of duelists, 
or of adulterers, or of murderers, were to enact laws 
which define the guilt of gambling, dueling, adultery 
and murder ; who does not see that they would be under 
irresistible temptations to diminish the turpitude of these 
crimes ? Or if a jury were composed of persons, who were 
themselves in the prevailing habit of committing the 
crime for which they are called to sit in judgment on one 
of their fellow-men ; who does not see that their verdict 
would not be very likely to be impartial ? This is pre- 
cisely the condition of all men^ when sitting in judgment 
upon the ill-desert of sin. They are under strong tempt- 
ations to palliate, if not to justify, their conduct, and to 
form as favorable an estimate of it as they can. If men 
could be found who were themselves perfectly sinless and 
pure, their judgment of the ill-desert of sin would be 
founded upon very different principles from those which 
influence ours : it would be less difficult for them to fall 
m with the revealed decisions of the impartial Lawgiver 
and Judge. 

Our impressions of the ill-desert of sin are influenced, 
also, by our constant familiarity with it. We arc fa- 



1^8 A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

miliar with it in others, and we are still more familiar 
with it in ourselves. There is nothing- with which the 
great mass of mankind are so familiar ; and it were no 
marvel if their views of its ill-desert should be greatly 
biassed by this familiarity. The first impressions of a 
stranger who has never before witnessed the scenes of 
wickedness that everywhere meet his eye in this me- 
tropolis, are very different from what they come to be 
after he has been familiarized with them for a series of 
years. The inward shuddering, the instinctive horror 
they first excited have passed away, and he is tempted 
to regard them with a sort of indifference. A little child 
has a strong native propensity to sin, yet, when he first 
sees, or hears, or contemplates flagrant wickedness, his 
moral sensibilities are pained and shocked ; but by a 
gradual familiarity with it he survives the shock, and his 
sense of its turpitude not only becomes less and less vivid, 
but well nigh ceases to exist. It is thus that those who 
venture on forbidden paths so often make such rapid 
progress in sinning. Their familiarity with wickedness 
imperceptibly leads them on, and makes them insensible of 
its vileness. There was a time when the most abandoned 
sinner in the world would have trembled to think of the 
crimes he afterwards committed. Men first become 
familiar with sin in their thoughts ; then, by small 
beginnings, they become familiar with sinful practices ; 
then, because they do not look so frightful as before, they 
are familiar with sins of a deeper dye. Though all men 
have a witness for God in their own consciences, there is 
no man who is not lamentably familiar with the sin of 
disregarding the divine authority, and violating the 
strongest moral obligations. This fact alone renders it a 
very difl[icult thing to form a just estimate of the turpi- 
tude and ill-desert of human wickedness. If in the same 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. Jgg 

measure in which men are familiar with sin, it loses its 
ugliness, we may not wonder that in the same measure 
do they cease to be disgusted with it, and their impres- 
sions of its ill-desert fail short of what it deserves in the 
sight of God. It is impossible for them to estimate its 
ill-desert as angels estimate it, as the Saviour estimates 
it, and as the Holy God estimates it. Even the best of 
men have, in this respect, placed themselves in a false 
position. They estimate it more justly than men who 
have no holiness, because they are sanctified in part, are 
partakers of the divine nature, have imbibed the spirit 
of Christ, and feel toward sin in some degree as God 
feels, and hate it to a degree that makes it their sorrow 
and burden ; but because these views and feelings toward 
it are by no means constant and uniform, and equally 
strong at all times, they fail of appreciating the turpitude 
and ill-desert of it as they themselves will do when they 
have hereafter become holy as God is holy, and perfect 
as their Father in heaven is perfect. 

Not only are all men sinners, and familiar with sin, 
but great multitudes have no enlightened and tender con- 
science. It is not so much the province of reason to arrive 
at just conclusions in regard to the demerit of sin, as it is 
the province of conscience ; and conscience may be easily 
blinded, bribed and corrupted to false conclusions. If 
we look into the Bible, we shall find that those of the 
sacred writers who had the deepest impressions of their 
personal ill-desert, were remarkable for that moral sensi- 
tiveness which results from tenderness of conscience. 
The offending Psalmist felt no embarrassment in relation 
to his own ill-desert, when he said, '' Against thee, 
thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight ; 
that thou mightest he justified when thou speakest, and be 
clear whm fhoujudgesf.^^ He acquits God of all severity, 
8 



170 A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

should he inflict upon him the sentence of his righteous 
law. He had the same views also of the ill-desert of his 
fellow-men ; for he says, '' If thou. Lord, shouldest mark 
iniquity, O Lord, who could standi" It was, in his judg- 
ment, nothing more than strict, impartial justice, even 
should the fearful penalty fall upon the entire race. His 
conscience was thoroughly awake. When he contem- 
plated his sins, he expressed his emotions in language 
unusually strong. ''Mine iniquities," says he, "are 
gone over my head ; as an heavy burden, they are too 
heavy for me. I am troubled ; T am bowed down 
greatly ; I go mourning all the day long. I am feeble 
and sore broken ; I have roared by reason of the disqui- 
etude of my heart!" Such, too, were the views and 
experience of Paul, as he has represented them in the 
account which he has given of his early convictions : 
'' For I was alive without the la,w once ; but when the 
commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the 
commandment which was ordained to life I found to be 
unto death. Wherefore the law is holy, and the com- 
mandment holy, just and good.^'' He records his appro- 
bation, not only of the precept of the law, but of its 
jienalty; and '' consents to it, that it is good.'^^ His con- 
science was enlightened and tender. He felt the burden 
of his sins so deeply, that he exclaimed, " O wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death?" Even good men differ greatl3'in this tenderness of 
conscience. Some have deeper convictions of sin before 
their conversion ; and some have deeper convictions after 
their conversion than before. But to whatever extent, 
and at whatever time, these convictions take place, the 
deeper, the more powerful, and pungent, and overwhelm- 
ing they are, and the more they prostrate the sinner in 
the dust, the less likely are they to be forgotten, and the 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 17 1 

deeper is the impression they make of personal ill-desert. 
It is only because conscience is not duly awake and faith- 
ful, that men complain of the severity of future and 
eternal punishment. Where the conscience is sensitive, 
their difficulties arise from another quarter. They see 
clearly enough that it is perfectly just and right that God 
should condemn them ; but they do not so readily see how 
it can be just and right that he should deliver thgm from 
this deserved condemnation. It is not necessary even to 
see themselves in all their odious ness in order to come to 
this conclusion. Conscience has no imputations of rigor 
against the condemning sentence. The truly convinced 
sinner clears God of all such unjust allegations. No 
words can express the enormity of his guilt. When men 
venture to pass judgment upon the government of God, 
and to arraign the penalty of his law as unjust and severe, 
it is because they have never felt the full weight of a 
self-condemning conscience. Conscience is blinded and 
stupefied. Just as the natural senses are sometimes 
paralyzed by the disease of the body, the conscience is 
paralyzed by sin, the great disease of the soul. Just as 
diseases of the body disturb the harmony of the animal 
functions, so that they no longer act in mutual concurrence 
and subordination, does sin disturb the harmony of 
the soul, so that its powers and faculties no longer act 
in due subordination and concurrence. The Apostle 
speaks of those whose " mind and conscience are defiled ;" 
its power and tenderness are impaired by sin. An ob- 
durate conscience gradually becomes more callous and 
seared ; whereas, a sensitive conscience becomes more 
and more sensitive, and the gentlest reproof renews its 
grief. An honest conscience does not ask how sin may 
be screened, but how it may be detected ; nor does it 
ever so nicely philosophize as to inquire how little pun- 



172 A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

ishment it deserves. The vilest man admits a sort of pro- 
portion between sin and punishment; and it is only 
because a sense of guilt is not fastened on his con- 
science, that he hesitates to admit the proportion which 
God himself has established. Conscience sometimes 
awakes even in the bosoms of the vilest men when they 
come to their dying pillow ; and then they begin to feel 
the gnawings of the worm that will never die. Conscience 
must speak, sooner or later ; it will speak hereafter ; and 
when it does, its verdict will be the same with that of 
the righteous Judge. Men shun the warnings of con- 
science, little thinking of the peril of so doing. If they 
do not listen to them in seasons of mercy and health , 
they may break in upon them in the time of affliction 
and at the hour of death. They may indeed be stifled till 
after death, and for the first time heard only in the world 
of everlasting remorse and despair. 

The difficulty of coming at a true sense of sin, is also 
to be attributed to the want of loatchful and 'persevering 
efforts to restrain and subdue it. Our sense of the demerit 
of sin is always in proportion to our impressions of its 
strength and power; while our impressions of its strength 
and power are always graduated by our efforts to restrain 
it. A man never knows the power and malignity of a 
deadly pestilence, until he undertakes to subdue it ; nor 
the fierceness of the raging flames, until he endeavors to 
quench them ; nor the sweeping force of a rushing and 
resistless torrent, until he tries to obstruct or divert it from 
its course. It is not surprising that those who make no 
resistance to the force of tlieir corruptions, who never 
attempt to restrain their sinful thoughts and desires, but 
allow themselves to be carried away by the subtilty or 
force of their evil inclinations, should have no just im- 
pressions of their guilty character. Let them, by dailv 



A STUMBLING-BLUCK REMOVED. 173 

watchfulness and prayer, and by summoning the greatest 
efforts of their resolution, endeavor to control their cor- 
rupt nature, and to stem its torrent ; and they will see 
that nothing can set bounds to it, but the almighty power 
and sovereign grace of God. Their views of its malig- 
nity will no longer be speculative and theoretical, but 
the views of experience. Nothing which men can do 
sets in a clearer light the power of sin, than vigorous 
efforts to restrain it. They become sensible of their moral 
bondage, only by finding themselves unable to break its 
chains. A man who endeavors to be sincere and punc- 
tual in the performance of his duty ; who cultivates a 
strong sense of his obligations to do all that God requires ; 
who finds his joy in the fellowship and enjoyment of Him, 
the light of whose countenance feeds and satisfies the 
glorified spirits that are around his throne ; soon becomes 
conscious of the melancholy extent to which sin obstructs 
his progress, cools his zeal, makes perpetual inroads upon 
his peace and spiritual enjoyment, corrupts his motives, 
disqualifies him for his duty, and obscures the light of 
God's countenance. No sooner does he see and feel these 
things, than he has very diflferent views of his character as 
a sinner, and of his true and intrinsic ill-desert, from those 
superficial views which are so common among men. His 
iniquity will appear hateful to himself, and he will no 
longer wonder that it is infinitely and eternally hateful to 
God, or that he should put upon it the stigma of his ever- 
lasting displeasure. It is impossible that those who make 
no efforts to restrain and subdue their moral corruptions, 
should have any just sense of the malignity of sin, or its 
proper demerit. They do not feel its power, and there- 
fore have no proper sense of the punishment it deserves. 
They know little of its resistless nature, until they come 
to put their strong restraints upon it j and then they see 



174 A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

how vile it is, and how ill-deserving they themselves 
are. 

I will mention only one more fact that should be taken 
into the account when reflecting on this general subject: 
it is, the low estimate which men form of the spirituality 
and obligations of the divine law. Sin is the transgres- 
sion of the law. The law of God is the only unerring 
standard of moral character in the universe, and is alike 
applicable to all the various orders of intelligences in all 
worlds. It is founded on their nature and moral re- 
lations ; is level to their intellectual capacity ; comes home 
to their bosoms ; requires what is right, and forbids only 
what is wrong; and enforces those great principles of 
truth and duty which are essential to the well-being of 
all creatures, by the authprity of Him who is the Cre- 
ator and proprietor of all things, and is himself the 
eternal and undisputed Sovereign and Lawgiver. Were 
this law universally disobeyed in heaven, heaven would 
be instantly transformed into " a spacious hell." Be- 
cause it is so universally disobeyed on earth, the world in 
which we dwell ever has presented, and still presents, 
such scenes of unkindness, hatred, revenge, pride, rage, 
ambition, envy, and every evil work. Because it is uni- 
versally disobeyed and trampled on in hell, hell is what 
it is — a world where malevolence is unrestrained ; and 
falsehood, deceit, violence, and every malignant passion, 
raging without control, constitute their own punish- 
ment, and suffer under the frown and curse of the angry 
Lawgiver. This great rule of action draws the line of 
demarkation between the worlds of light aud darkness ; 
and in language, amid scenes as full of fearful emphasis 
as the mind of man can conceive, warns men of the 
danger of infringing in the least degree upon those high 
and holy precepts and prohibitions, a sacred and invio- 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK KEMUVLD. 175 

lable regard to which constitutes all moral excellence and 
true blessedness. And why should it be the subject of 
complaint, that no being may cross this dividing line, 
without stepping into the world of darkness, and at every 
stage of his progress meeting his Maker's wrath 1 Why 
should it be thought strange, that the farther and the 
longer he wanders, the more bitterly must he suffer? 
The law makes no provision for his release. Neither its 
precept nor its penalty intimates any way of returning to 
God ; nor is there anything in the character of the trans- 
gressor that indicates the least desire or symptom of 
reformation. Sin begets sin, and sin only, and con- 
tinues to beget it throughout interminable ages. The 
first step was the fatal step. Once initiated in a course 
of sinning, and a,n eternity of sinning and suffering is 
both the natural and legal consequence. 

And where is the severity of the divine government in 
such an arrangement as this ? Is not the punishment 
exactly adjusted to the crime ? Is it not even justice'? Is 
it not the recompense strictly due to transgression ? Does 
not the presumptuous aud fearful deed which thus in- 
volves contempt of the supreme authority of heaven and 
earth, which aims at disturbing the moral order and 
government of the universe, and is, in itself, eternal re- 
pugnance to all that is good and excellent, draw after it 
everlasting ill-desert, and call for just such reprobation 
as the law prescribes ? The justice of God consists in 
the impartial execution of his laws, without favor to the 
high or the low, and with exact regard to the character 
of his creatures. It knows neither angel nor man; it is 
alike a stranger to the seraph and the beggar. When 
angels set it at defiance, they must die. There was no 
return for them ; nor had they, nor have they now, any 
desire to return, but are more fortified and obdurate in 



176 A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

their rebellion the longer they persist in it, and are made 
to feel its woes. And if its condemning wrath were 
just to fallen angels, why is it not just to apostate men ? 
Must these princes of heaven, who once occupied a throne 
near their Maker, become forever accursed and miserable 
for their rebellion, and shall man complain when he 
swells with insolence against his Sovereign Lawgiver, 
that he is struck down into the burning lake ? The ma- 
lignity of sin arises from the depravity of the sinner's 
heart ; but its enormity is measured by the greatness of 
the Being against whom it is committed, and its daring 
violation of his supreme dominion. Fallen angels have 
never been known to complain of the rigor of the divine 
law ; and why should man complain ? Rather would I 
ask, why is not the rectitude of the law even more con- 
spicuous towards fallen men? — men who live under a 
dispensation of mercy — a dispensation that has provided 
a way of return^ as well as pai'don^ on the simple condi- 
tion of acknowledging the justice and rectitude of the 
condemning sentence, and repairing to the appointed 
Saviour ? Men do not see the evil, nor feel the ill-de- 
sert, of that rash and presumptuous deed which violates 
and tramples on the law and authority of the great Su- 
preme, and persists in unhallowed contempt of his 
government, because they depreciate that law and that 
authority. They do not feel the demerit of that blind 
and headstrong wickedness which crosses the line of 
demarkation between the empire of God's friends and 
his enemies, and chooses to roam over the regions of sin 
and darkness, because they do what in them lies to ob- 
literate the line itself. They make light of sin, because 
they make light of God ; because they make light of 
his pure and holy law ; and in the place of this unchang- 
ing and unerring standard of obligation, set up their own 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 177 

notions of right and wrong ; appeal to the false customs 
and manners and principles of the world ; reason not as 
God reasons, but pervert and lower that high standard 
which he has made the infallible rule of their conduct, 
and the righteous Judge of their iniquity. The more 
men love the law of God, the more they will see the 
guilt of violating it. The more they honor the obliga- 
tions and spirituality of this laAv, the deeper will be 
their impressions of their own aggravated criminality, 
and the less embarrassment will they feel in approv- 
ing all its sanctions. A just view of the law of God is 
fitted to produce the conviction that the Supreme Law- 
giver has established an exact correspondence between 
sin and its punishment, and that the decree which makes 
misery the eternal heritage of the wicked, is, and ought 
to be, irrevocable. 

We cannot extend these thoughts. We shall be grate- 
ful if they serve to meet the difficulty to which they refer, 
and cast up this stumbling-block in the way of the Cross. 
We shall be grateful, if they relieve any honest inquirer 
from embarrassment on a subject of deep practical interest 
to true piety and true hope. 

Let the reader treasure up in his mind the following 
lessons, if he would not remain blind to his own char- 
acter. Let him beware of making light of sin. What 
multitudes are there who do this ! There have been those 
who carry their folly in this respect so far as to deny all 
distinction between sin and holiness, and do all in their 
power to break down all moral discriminations. It may 
be expected of men who say they see no difference 
between what is right and what is wrong, that they 
shpuld complain of the divine judgments. And what 
multitudes are there, who, while they see the preposter- 
ousness of such false notions as this, yet look upon sin as 
8* 



178 A STUMBLING BLOCK REMOVED. 

a very light matter, and a trifling evil ! The Scriptures 
represent it to be an exceedingly evil and bitter thing — 
the greatest evil that exists, or that can exist in the uni- 
verse; yet how many look upon it as scarcely worth 
regarding, either by God or man ! They may in theory 
deprecate it as they do any other evil, and at the same 
time show by their life and conversation, that with them 
it is a matter of little concern. Multitudes there are, too, 
who turn the whole subject of human depravity into con- 
tempt and ridicule ; who treat with levity that universal 
apostacy of man under which the whole creation groans, 
for the rebuke of which God has prepared his instruments 
of death, and for which Jesus died on the Cross. Others, 
again, pretend not to see their sins, and like the children 
of Israel, whom God charged with flagrant violations of 
his law, assert their ignorance, and inquire, with the 
utmost temerity, wherein they have transgressed. They 
set at defiance all the consequences of §inning, bitter and 
dreadful as they are, both in this world and that which 
is to come, and rush on headlong to destruction. They 
despise the admonitions and threatenings of God's word ; 
and, as though they could not insure their final doom 
with sufiicient certainty , wantonly make themselves merry 
with the idea of eternal punishment. '' How canst thou 
say, I have not sinned ? See thy way in the valley, and 
know what thou hast done!" Well does the inspired 
Preacher affirm, " Fools make a mock at sin." In the 
opinion of men sin may be a light matter, but it is not so in 
the judgment of God. There is no greater or more dan- 
gerous delusion, than to yield to the impression that it is a 
slight offence to trample on the commands of the great 
Jehovah. Never will you be made sensible of your 
blame-worthiness, so long as you have this spirit ; but 
will go on in sin, trifling with yoiu- iniquity, till you 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 179 

mourn at the last, and say, '' How have I hated instruc- 
tion and despised reproof!" This insensibility to the 
ill-desert of sin is one of the crying evils of the age in 
which we live, and is a growing evil in the minds of the 
old and the young. The old become hardened in 
iniquity, and the young rapidly initiated in evil courses, 
because they so seldom reflect on the great evil of sinning 
against God. It will be a solemn hour when this delu- 
sion shall be swept away, and you see how great the 
guilt is which you have contracted. That hour must 
come, either in this or in the future world. Should it 
ever come in this world, oh, how will you feel that you 
ought to abhor yourselves, and repent in dust and ashes ! 
Should it not arrive until after you have done with time, 
it will be such a day as you have little thought of. When 
all your sins are brought to light, and the mask is fully 
taken oif — when your iniquity is exhibited to yourselves 
and to the universe — the rocks and the mountains may 
fall upon you, but they cannot cover your shame, nor 
hide you from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, 
nor from the presence and wrath of the Lamb. 

God, in his word, everywhere sets before men their 
sins ; he takes great pains to give a right and kind 
direction to their thoughts, and to lead them to a self- 
inspection that shall be ingenuous and faithful. He 
expostulates and pleads with all flesh ; he admonishes 
them that he will maintain this process, follow it up to 
conviction, and inflict the deserved punishment. Yet 
they either assert their innocence, or defend their cause 
by impugning his punitive justice. The controversy 
between God and wicked men is nowhere more obvious, 
than in the single point which relates to their own ill- 
desert. God affirms that the punishment which sin 
deserves is eternal death ; and he will make this affirm- 



130 ^ STUMBLIXG-BLOCK REMOVED. 

ation good, by executing this penalty upon all who obey 
not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wicked men 
affirm that it does not deserve such a punishment ; and 
they are deeply interested in making their affirmation 
good. They have tried to do so in every age of the 
world, and are trying to do so still. One reason why 
they are God's enemies, is that he is so just. They had 
rather there would be no God, than a being of such 
inflexible justice. They array themselves against his 
authority, dispute his right to govern them, endeavor 
to flee out of his hands, exert all the ingenuity of their 
reasoning powers to disprove and invalidate the equity of 
his claims ; and whenever they are brought to despair of 
this, their dissatisfaction evinces itself in bitter complaint 
and murmuring. They reply against the Lord, contend 
with their Maker, and feel as though they never could 
give up the contest. This always has been one of the 
grounds of controversy between God and rebellious men. 
God claims the right thus to punish them, and they deny 
this right. God declares that it is no injustice thus to 
punish them, but perfect equity ; and that if he had 
thus punished every transgressor he would have done 
him no injury. They, on the other hand, insist that it 
is the height of injury and injustice. And here God and 
wicked men are at issue : they are at issue upon a very 
important point, and one that involves the great princi- 
ples of his government. If the sinner is right, God is 
wrong. If the sinner is right, all the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the Gospel are false ; and there is neither truth 
nor importance in the method of salvation which that 
Gospel reveals. If the sinner is wrong, his error is a 
great and essential error, and his position is not less dan- 
gerous and criminal than it is false. In *^ visions of the 
night, when deep sleep falleth upon men," Eliphazonce 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOV^ED. Jgl 

heard a voice, saying, '^ Shall mortal man be more just 
than God? shall man be more pure than his Maker? 
Behold, he put no trust in his servants, and his angels he 
charged with folly. How much less in them that dwell 
in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which 
are crushed before the moth !" Forever let it be pro- 
claimed, God is right, and the sinner is wrong ! 

On no subject is the radical difference between the right- 
eous and the wicked more clearly evinced, than the one 
we have been considering. I do not find an instance in 
the Scriptures in which good men do not recognize the 
equity of the sentence that condemns them to eternal 
death. Christians all the world over acquiesce in the 
rectitude of this penalty, because God has revealed it, 
and they have confidence in him that he does and will 
do what is right ; and because the more they know of 
themselves and of their own personal wickedness and ill- 
desert, the more is the conviction inwrought in their own 
conscious experience that they deserve such a doom. It 
is in this conviction that they begin their religion ; and 
in this conviction, they hold on their way, " ascribing 
righteousness to their Maker," and taking " shame and 
confusion of face to themselves." In this cordial con- 
viction, good men differ from all the wicked men in the 
world. It is no part of piety to contend Avith God's 
justice. That controversy was terminated when the 
proud heart of the sinner was humbled, and he accepted 
the punishment of his iniquity, and submitted himself to 
the righteousness of God as revealed in the Gospel of his 
Son. The Christian once loved sin, but now he hates 
it. He once justified it, but now he condemns it, and 
just as God condemns it. Such is not the character 
nor the experience of wicked men. They love sin 
still, and still justify it, and refuse to unite with God 



182 A STUMBLING-BLOCK RExMOVED. 

in condemning it according to its true desert. We 
here see one of the great points of difference between 
him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. 
This was one of the points of difference between Saul 
at Tarsus, and Paul at Rome. This was one of the 
points of difference between the penitent and the im- 
penitent malefactors who hung on the Cross. This is 
one of the points of difference between the convinced 
sinner who rebels against the condemning sentence, and 
the humbled sinner who approves it. 

Is the reader among the righteous, or among the 
wicked 1 Has he this evidence of being a child of God, 
that he sees and approves of the sentence that dooms him 
to eternal destruction? Does he justify his Maker in 
executing the penalty of his holy law 1 or does he com- 
plain with the Jews spoken of by the Prophet, and say, 
'' Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this evil 
against us ?" Does he see and feel that it would be 
right, perfectly rights if he were a cast-away, and should 
suffer God's righteous displeasure forever 1 

We have been contemplating the grand obstacle which 
stands in the way of the sinner'' s repairing to the Cross. No- 
thing is more obvious than that no man accepts the Gospel 
while he has a quarrel with the law ; that no man can 
humbly receive the grace of God, so long as he cavils at 
his justice ; that no man can feel his need of Christ and 
repair to him for salvation, until he knows and feels that 
he deserves the punishment from which Christ came to 
deliver. Some men feel this more deeply than others ; 
but all must feel it in order to accept the Gospel. Some 
have a greater sense of danger than of guilt ; and some 
have a greater sense of guilt than of danger. But all 
who accept of Christ feel their 7ieed of him.; and all who 
feel their need of him, feel their exposure to God's right- 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. JgS 

eous and eternal indignation without him. It is just as 
difficult for an unconverted man to love the grace of God 
as to approve his justice; for he cannot do the former 
until he does the latter. And here lies the grand obstacle 
in the way of his accepting the Gospel. The Gospel 
must be forever rejected, so long as men hate and op- 
pose either the precept or the penalty of the law. They 
will complain of difficulty in accepting it — they will 
resolve and re-resolve — they will postpone and procrasti- 
nate — and the Cross of Christ will be a " stone of stum- 
bling and a rock of offence" — so long as they stumble at 
the law. How many are there who feel that they can- 
not accept the Gospel, because they cannot feel that they 
justly deserve eternal death 1 This is no theoretical 
difficulty, but one of every-day occurrence. It meets the 
parent in his interviews with his child ; it meets the pas- 
tor in his associations with his people ; it meets the moral 
sinner in his reliance upon his morality, the self-righteous 
sinner in his reliance upon his self-righteousness, the 
awakened sinner in his solemnity, and the convinced 
and unhumbled sinner in his contest Avith the divine rec- 
titude and justice. It is an obstacle that is fatal to accept- 
ance of the Gospel, so long as it lasts. And why — why 
should it last an hour ? Where is your memory, and 
what has become of your conscience, that you doubt if 
God is clear when he speaks, and just when he judges ? 
Oh, if all your sins were searched out ; if they were all 
exhibited in their number and enormity ; if he who counts 
the hairs of your head and the sands on the shore, should 
set them all before you ; it would be only to " torment you 
before the time." It is true, they have not yet brought you 
to the place of the damned ; but I pray you to see what 
they are doing, and awake to a sense of their criminality 
and ill-desert. Nothing is more burdensome, I know, 



184 ^ STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. 

and nothing more miserable, than a conscience enlight- 
ened by the Spirit of God, and distressed by a view of 
sin. And this is the reason why men contend so bitterly 
against the conviction, and grieve the Holy Spirit ; and 
why so many never feel their need of Christ, and never 
accept his healing salvation. But resist it not. Welcome 
it — welcome it all. Pray for it. Supplicate the light of 
divine truth and grace to shine into your minds, to pene- 
trate your conscience, and to lay open your bosom to 
the powerful impression that you are lost and undone. 
This insensibility to sin and ill-desert is confined to our 
lost race, and our guilty world. You could not persist in 
it, but for the divine forbearance and long-suffering. It 
will all leave you when you come to die, and stand before 
your Judge. Not a vestige of it will then be found. No 
state of mind will be more thoroughly cured hereafter 
than this ; and there is no state of mind, the remembrance 
of which will probably add deeper anguish to the sin 
ner's everlasting woes 

I conclude this long chapter with the remark, that these 
claims of God's justice emphatically recommend the glori- 
ous Gospel of the ever-blessed God, and the Cross of his 
dear Son. If you are conscious that you are a sinner, 
sensible that you are justly condemned, to you I have an 
errand that ought to be welcome. You have heard it a 
thousand times, and made light of it ; but it was because 
you felt not that interest in it which you now feel. I 
have not a word to utter against the law which condemns 
you. It condemns me as well as you. It condemns us 
all. I dare not impugn it. I would not alter it by a 
wish. It is upon this firm basis of "justice and judg- 
ment," which are " the habitation of his throne," that 
God, in his ineffable wisdom, has built that blessed su- 
perstructure of grace and mercy, which shows how 



A STUMBLING-BLOCK REMOVED. iSb 

guilty, ill-deserving man can be just with God, and how 
God can be just in rescuing man from his deserved doom. 
The weight of sin is taken off from you, and in the eye 
of the law transferred to the mighty Sufferer on Calvary. 
It is for you hut to accept the atonement which he has 
made, and the law is satisfied. Are not these glad tidings — 
glad tidings of great joy ? Oh, I will cheerfully take 
hold of my ill -desert, especially if, by so doing, I may 
take hold of Christ. Here is no ground for despair ; 
here are grace, mercy and peace from God the Father 
and our Lord Jesus Christ, — and to you, who deserve to 
die! Rejected, they do but augment the righteous penalty 
which you deserve already : accepted, there is a ransom 
from the curse, and the seal and pledge of acceptance 
with God. It remains for you to choose whether j^ou 
will be indebted to law and justice still, and pay the 
penalty, and exhaust the cup of divine indignation ; or 
gratefully consent to be indebted to Christ, and accept 
the ransom he has paid. If you pay the debt yourself, 
will it be ''better paid ?" 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE TO SALVATION BY 
THE CROSS. 

Is the fact, that a man is a great sinner, any reason 
why he may not and shoukl not be a partaker of the sal- 
vation which is revealed by the Cross of Christ? Some 
of us have a deep interest in this question, because some 
of us, when the book of God's remembrance shall be 
opened, will be seen to be among- the greatest sinners. 
" Some sins in themselves, and by reason of their several 
aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than 
others." There are those who are vile, exceedingly de- 
praved by sin, and openly and flagitiously wicked in the 
sight of God and the world. There are also those who, 
though not vile in the sight of the world, are vile in their 
own eyes, and whose habits of sinning, though not 
known to men, fill their own bosoms with reproach and 
shame, and not unfrequently with despair. And there 
are not wanting those, who are neither vile in their own 
eyes, nor in the view of their fellow-men, who are yet 
vile in the eyes of God, and whose wickedness is so 
masked and veiled under the forms of serious godliness, 
or grave morality, that its enormity is " naked and open 
only to the eyes of him with whom they have to do." Is 
there relief in the Cross of Christ for such sinners as these 1 
does it open the door of hope to them ? or are the gates 
of the Heavenly City forever shut against them, so that 



THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE Jg? 

of all the multitudes who enter within its walls, not one 
such grievous offender shall be found? The answer 
which the Gospel gives to this question is truly a wonder- 
ful answer. Hear it, earth ! " O earth, earth, earth, 
hear the word of the Lord!" Glad tidings is it of great 
joy to all people. It is, that '' where sin abounds, grace 
doth much more abound." It is no fiction, no dream of 
a disturbed and enthusiastic imagination. ^' It is a faith- 
ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save the chief of sinners." It is, 
that sins of the highest enormity and deepest die do not 
exceed the efficacy of atoning blood. It is, that men 
whose wickedness is so flagrant that it would seem the 
most daring presumption, the most mortal effrontery, for 
them to hope for salvation, may find it at the Cross. 
'' This is not the manner of man, O Lord God." 

Little as these thoughts may accord wath our self- 
righteous notions, we shall find them distinctly and most 
abundantly revealed in the word of God. The method 
of salvation devised for men is very different from that 
which men would fain devise for themselves. Men of a 
comparatively harmless and inoffensive life, the self-com- 
placent moralist, and the punctual and exact observer of 
all the outward forms of religion, rest their hopes on some- 
thing short of the great work of Jesus Christ. If you 
could enter into the secret operations of their own minds, 
you would find great multitudes who have hope toward 
God because they are not so bad as others ; or, which is 
the more true account of the matter, because they are 
better than other men. A reliance on some less degree 
of demerit, is the same thing with reliance on a greater 
degree of merit in the sinner. This whole moral ar- 
rangement, in every shape and form, is based upon the 
single principle of justification by the deeds of tlie law. 



188 THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE 

The salvation devised in the counsels of heaven is a very 
different method of salvation from this. Conscience 
unites with the Cross in teaching us, that the man who 
would find acceptance with God by his own well-doing, 
may not be an offender even " in one point." His obe- 
dience must be sinless ; he must produce a perfect right- 
eousness, or be " weighed in the balances and found 
wanting." When it is testified to us, on the truth of him 
who cannot lie, that there is a suret}^ accepted by God, 
and a satisfaction rendered by that surety which is apart 
from any obedience of ours, we have the assurance that 
the righteousness upon Avhich we are accepted regards us 
as worthless. When it is testified to us that ''grace 
reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus 
Christ our Lord," we have the assurance that, as there is 
no hope for an individual of the race because his sins are 
few and small, so is there not an individual of the race 
who is excluded from hope because his sins are many and 
great. If his righteousness is not of his own, but of 
God's providing — if it is not of his own working, but of 
God's imputing — then, at the moment of his believing in 
Jesus Christ, has he the full remission of his sins, and a 
title to eternal life, whether his iniquities are few or 
many, small or great. Save upon these terms, there is 
no hope for the least sinner ; while, upon such terms as 
these, God will '' abundantly pardon " the greatest. He 
whose infinite mind alone estimates the turpitude, the 
malignity, the pollution, the thanklessness of all sin, and 
who alone is c?vpable of measuring the height, and length, 
and breadth, and depth of it^ allows no reserves and no 
limitations to be imposed on the all-sufiiciency of his re- 
demption by the number and greatness of man's trans- 
gressions. The blood of sprinkling covers the whole 
ground of his disobedience, and cleanses its foulest stains. 



TO SALVATION BY THE CROSS. 189 

^^ Though his sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as 
snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool." 

The great God is infinite. Not more true is it that his 
wisdom and power are infinite, than that his mercy is 
infinite. Everything about it is infinite. It proceeds 
from infinite Being, flows through the medium of an 
infinite sacrifice, surmounts obstacles that are infinite, 
and addresses itself to those who are infinitely unworthy 
and ill-deserving. Unlike the cold and inactive com- 
passion of men, it acts itself out in ways best fitted to 
gratify and express its plenitude and tenderness. This 
is its great motive and impulse. It goes after the lost 
sheep ; it becomes familiar with the abodes of guilt 
and shame ; it binds up the broken-hearted ; it pro- 
claims liberty to those who, from the deepest dungeon 
and the most dreary darkness, are waiting the hour of 
their execution. Compassion and tenderness here find 
something to interest them. " The greater the sin, the 
greater the misery and helplessness." The greater the 
misery and helplessness, the stronger, the more resistless 
the appeal to God's tender mercies. Never do those 
mercies more truly consult their own intrinsic tenderness, 
and never do they more truly act in keeping with their 
own heavenly nature, than when their richest bounty is 
lavished on the greatest sinners. It is not to '' call the 
righteous " that the Saviour came, but " sinners to repent- 
ance." The tenderest expostulations of the divine mercy 
are not uttered over the boasting Pharisee, but over the 
corrupted and dishonest publican ; over the degraded and 
ruined ; over the pitiable demoniac that dwelt among the 
tombs ; and over idolatrous Ephraim, abandoned to his 
Paganism, wedded to his lusts, and offering sacrifice to 
devils and not to God. It is over these, and such as these, 



190 THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE 

that the expostulation has so often been poured forth : 
^' How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I de- 
liver thee, Israel? how shall I set thee as Admah? how 
shall I make thee as Zeboun ? My heart is turned within 
me ; my repentings are kindled together ; for I am God 
and not man !" 

Human charities are for the most part exhausted on 
virtuous suffering. Misery, when self-procured and the 
fruit of crime, is least pitied by men. But such is not 
the history of the divine compassion. '^ Israel, thou 
hast destroyed thy self ^ but in me is thy help !" Heavenly 
mercy has robes for the chilled and emaciated limbs of 
guilt and ignominy. The heavenly Physician comes 
with a remedy for the dying, even though they have 
destroyed themselves. He rescues the drowning sinner, 
though he plunged himself into the deep waters. The 
poisoned arrow which the headlong and reckless trans- 
gressor had plunged into his own bosom, he draws gently 
forth, and bids him live. These are the deeds of mercy 
to which the mercy of heaven is most inclined, and, were 
there no other considerations to restrain it, the very deeds 
in which it would most abound. If there be one sinner 
in the world greater than another — one who is of all 
others '' the farthest from God and the nearest to hell," 
and who, if not rescued, will be the most miserable of the 
race to all eternity — other things being equal, that is the 
sinner in whom the mercy of the Cross takes the deepest 
interest, over whom it weeps most in secret places, and 
whom, by every means and every motive, it would most 
encourage and allure. 

God teaches men by facts. Ordinary minds, and in- 
deed all minds, are better taught by facts than general 
principles or argument. When we look into the Bible, 
we not only see the calls and invitations of the Cross 



TO SALVATION BY THE CROSS. jg^ 

extended to men of every description of character, but 
learn that very many who were justly numbered among 
the vilest, have actually been brouglit to repentance, 
and found mercy. The Scriptures intentionally record 
this fact, and the sacred writers take pleasure in dwelling 
upon it. They furnish the names and history of not 
a few of the vilest ever known among the genera- 
tions of men, who have found pardon and peace, and 
who washed their robes and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb. Manasseh and Saul of Tarsus — the 
former the seducer of his nation into idolatry, and by his 
merciless and cruel sword filling the land with the blood 
of the innocent, and the latter a bold blasphemer and 
relentless persecuter of the church of God — were made 
monuments of redeeming mercy. ^' This man receiveth 
sinners, and eateth with them," was the proverbial re- 
proach which his enemies cast upon the Son of God. 
Publicans and harlots attended on his ministry, and found 
cleansing in his blood. Degenerate and apostate Jeru- 
salem, whose '^ very temple was turned into a slaughter- 
house of prophets and holy men," and whose inhabit- 
ants were the ringleaders of that fearful mob that 
crucified the Lord of Glory, was the spot selected, above 
all others, where the first wonders of the divine mercy 
Were unfolded, and where thousands became obedient to 
the faith. The churches of Ephesus, Corinth and Rome, 
were made up of men who were once "fornicators, adulte- 
rers, idolaters, effeminate, abusers of themselves with 
mankind, thieves, drunkards, revilers and extortioners ;" 
but they were " washed, they were sanctified, they were 
justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
Spirit of our God." The book of Providence records 
facts like these on every page of tliis world's history. 
On the deck of yonder slave-ship, was once a foul- 



192 THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE 

mouthed, profane young man, who knew no law but his 
guilty passions, and had no object but gain. That young 
man was Jo/m JYewton, afterwards the distinguished friend 
of God and his race, the humble follower and minister of 
Christ, and the chosen comforter of his people. In yonder 
shop was a low-bred man, who says of himself, that 
'' from a child he had few equals for cursing, swearing, 
lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God," and 
who was, to a mournful extent, the victim of debasing 
lusts and the corrupter of his fellow-men. It was no 
other than he whose " Grace Abounding" and '' Pilgrim's 
Progress " have lighted up the wilderness to so many 
travelers toward the celestial city. What the Cross was 
to these, it has been to thousands and thousands like 
them. Great sinners there are in hell, but sinners as 
great, in great numbers, are also found in heaven ; and 
while the one show forth the glories of the divine justice, 
the other are rivals in the blessed work of showing forth 
their obligations to unsearchable grace. The self-right- 
eous may murmur, and express their envy ; they may 
cast reproach upon that grace which they reject, and 
which so many viler than they humbly and thankfully 
receive ; while it still remains a truth, that the greatest 
of sinners may find salvation in the Cross. They are not 
the amiable and the moral only, to whom this grace is 
extended, but the wayward and vicious. It is not to the 
youthful sinner only, and before his wickedness has 
become matured by age, and aggravated by abused privi- 
leges, but to the ^' hoary scalp " of him who stops in 
his mad career, even on the outer verge of human life. 
It is not to the new-born babe alone, but to the dying 
thief. 

When the redeemed reach the shores of their long- 
looked-for eternity, the song they will sing will be, 



TO SALVATION DY THE CROSS. 193 

'' Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood." Great and everlasting honors will ac- 
crue to him for his love to guilty men, and for that won- 
derful stoop of condescension which brought him down 
from heaven to save them from their sins. No angelic 
song will ever equal this ^' new song" from the lips of 
Christ's redeemed. And many a tongue will utter it 
which once cursed him ; and many a voice will swell its 
harmony which once reveled in debasing wickedness, 
and was heard louder than its compeers amid scenes of 
brutal dissipation. 

This is no doubt among the reasons why there is 
mercy for the greatest sinner. The exalted Saviour pro- 
fesses to be '^mighty to save" — ^' able to save all that 
come unto God by him." To prove his sufficiency, and 
make it known, he saves the vilest and most hopeless. 
No matter how black the night of ignorance, or how 
strong the bonds of sin, or how damning the guilt; he 
illuminates the darkness, breaks the bondage, and for all 
the guilt his blood atones. Rigorous as are the claims 
of law and justice, he satisfies them. Deep and fresh as 
are the wounds in the bleeding conscience, he staunches 
them. Be the spiritual maladies ever so desperate and 
incurable, he has a remedy for them. And while he 
thus demonstrates his title to the honors he receives, and 
*^ in the ages to come shows forth the exceeding riches of 
his grace," he at the same time demonstrates the all-suffi- 
ciency in which he glories. Many a great sinner, in the 
last stage of a distressing conviction has rested his plea at 
the throne of grace on this one argument. It was his only 
hope. And many an offending child of God, too, has 
here rested his plea for the restored light of God's coun- 
tenance, which he had lost by his wickedness. Not un- 
like this, was the argument of the Psalmist, when, 
9 



194 THE GREATNESS OF SL^^ NO OBSTACLE 

stained as his hands were with the double crime of adul- 
tery and murder, he ventured to say, '^ For thy name^s 
sake, Lord, pardon my iniquity ,ybr it is great.^^ Strange 
argument for pardon, but as effective as it is strange! There 
is amazing power and grace in saving the viler sort of 
men, because there is everything to oppose and overcome. 
It is not always safe to rouse the tiger in his lair. In the 
language of Bunyan, " Satan is loth to part with a great 
sinner," and when his deliverance is accomplished, it is 
an emphatic triumph of the Omnipotent Deliverer. Just 
as ^he sun shows not his power so much by shining across 
the clear sky, as by dissipating the thick and lowering 
storm, so the Sun of Righteousness never rises so sensibly 
with healing in his beams, as when he scatters the black- 
ening clouds, and arrests the tempest that is about to fall. 
The grace that reigns by the Cross, is never so gracious as 
when it holds back the sword of justice from the most 
vile and worthless, and rescues its victim as a ''brand 
plucked out of the fire." He who left Pharaoh an uncon- 
verted man, and in his rightful and adorable sovereignty 
hardened his heart, that " his name might be known in 
all the earth," often, to make his great name known, 
takes the heart of stone away from the most obdurate 
and hardened of our race, " that it may turn to him for a 
name of joy, and a praise and an honor before all the na- 
tions of the earth." 

Another end to be answered by such dispensations of 
divine grace, is to afford encouragement to all men^ icith- 
out exception, to come to Jesus Christ. If the greatest 
sinners may be saved, none may despair. If there be 
grace for the worst who come to Jesus, then is there suf 
ficient for all. The spell of the great deceiver is broken, 
and he may no longer hold men in bondage by the fiend- 
like suggestipn, thfit they are beyond the reach of mercy. 



TO SALVATION BY THE CROSS. 295 

By bringing so many of the most obdurate and guilty to 
the Cross, God would have the world distinctly under- 
stand that there is no ground and no room for discour- 
agement. No man may say that his sins are too great 
to be forgiven. But for what God has said and done in 
the acceptance of great sinners, thousands who have, on 
this account, been encouraged to seek religion and come 
to Christ, never would have dared to approach him. 
When we hear such a man as Saul of Tarsus say, ^^ It is 
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of 
whom I AM CHIEF ;" which of us does not feel the great- 
est encouragement to repair to the Cross? The writer 
will not easily forget the impression which the following 
sentence from the forcible writer to whom he just now 
referred, once made on his own mind : '^ When one 
great sinner finds mercy, another great sinner is en- 
couraged to hope that he may find mercy also." It 
is a simple thought ; but there are states of mind in 
which it is unutterably precious. The great mass of 
awakened and convinced sinners would be utterly dis- 
couraged by a view of their own ignorance, weakness, 
darkness and wickedness, were it not for just such facts 
and assurances as these. But who shall be depressed, 
when he looks at the long catalogue of vile and atro- 
cious off*enders, from Adam down to the present hour ! 
'' Oh ! I am a reprobate. The measure of my iniquity is 
full. I am just fit for eternal burnings. It is not possi- 
ble there should be hope for such a sinner !" Who is it 
that says this ? It sounds like a voice from the caverns 
of despair, rather than from this world of mercy where 
.Tesus wept and died. And who is it that is the prompter 
to such despondency ? It is some dark spirit of the pit. 
It is not the Spirit of God j it is not the Saviour of men ; 



196 THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE 

it is not the Bible ; nor is it the prompting of those mul- 
tiplied proofs of the power of grace with which heaven 
has been filled from our apostate world. God does not 
save men from tenderness to their own souls merely, but 
that, through his mercy to them, others may also find 
mercy. Eternity alone can reveal the number of those 
who have been kept from sinking into despair, and into 
hell itself, by those narratives of conversion which have 
abounded in this land within the past twenty years. If 
Christ "had rather save than damn " that poor drunkard, 
that vile debauchee, that hardened infidel, that son of 
godly parents who has become a very maniac in wicked- 
ness, and every one of these is now hoping in his mercy, 
and adorning that hope by a well-ordered life and deport- 
ment ; what encouragement is there for me — for you — 
for all! Never was a truth more fitted to the condition 
of our lost world than this. Oh, the unspeakable fullness, 
and riches, and sovereignty of grace in the Cross ! What 
can the guilty sinner want more 1 Not until a voice from 
heaven, calling him by name, and foretelling his awful 
doom — no, not until he has passed the regions of this 
world of hope, and actually made his bed in hell, may 
he despair of mercy. Tell me where the vilest sinner is 
to be found that dwells on God's footstool ; conduct me 
to his abode of wickedness and gloom ; and if it be 
anywhere this side the grave, I would assure him in 
God's name, that he who was lifted up from tire earth 
came to save just such sinners as he. Question not the 
truth of God. Limit not the infinitude of his mercy. 
Distrust not his omnipotent power. Reject not his only 
Son. He is the sinner's friend, and his last hope. His 
language is, " Let him that heareth come ; let him that 
thirsteth come; and whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." 



TO SALVATION BY THE CROSS. 197 

There is one most beautiful feature in this arrange- 
ment of the divine mercy : it is, the reaction which it 
exerts upon the mind of the saved sinner himself. 
" Simon," said our Divine Lord, '^ I have somewhat to 
say unto thee. There was a certain creditor which had 
two debtors : the one owed five hundred pence, the other 
fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly 
forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them 
will love him most. Simon answered and said, I suppose 
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto 
him. Thou hast rightly judged.''^ Great sinners who 
have found mercy never forget the love of Christ. They 
more usually have deeper and more pungent convictions 
of conscience and of sin, both before their conversion and 
afterwards, than other men, and are very apt to carry 
these convictions through all their subsequent life, and 
with these a befitting and corresponding sense of God's 
wonderful love and mercy. David's convictions of his 
great sins, as recorded in the fifty-first Psalm, were of 
this kind ; and when he speaks of God's redeeming 
mercy, his language partakes of the same strong and 
deep feeling. " He brought me up out of an horrible pit, 
out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and 
established my goings. And he hath put a new song 
in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many, O Lord 
my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, 
and thy thoughts which are to us- ward; they cannot be 
reckoned up in order unto thee : if I would declare and 
speak of them, they are more than can be numbered." 
Paul's convictions were also of the same powerful and 
overwhelming character. They prostrated him on the 
ground ; shook his whole frame, and produced such in- 
ternal conflict and agitation, that when he found peace 
and joy in believing, his love was as ardent as his con- 



198 THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE 

victions had been overpowering. Nothing cooled the 
fervor of his grateful attachment. The sacred flame that 
was kindled on his way to Damascus, burned brighter 
and brighter, through darkness, through trial, through 
the floods and through the flames, till it rose pure from 
the scaffold where he received the martyr's crown, and 
whence his spirit ascended to receive the crown that 
fadeth not away. Ungrateful as the heart of man na- 
turally is, when subdued by grace it is not insensible 
to the love of the Cross. '^ To whom much is forgiven, 
the same loveth much ; but to whom little is forgiven, 
the same loveth little." Show me a man in whom the 
singleness of purpose which marked the character of 
Paul is manifest, and in whose whole life is discoverable 
his fixedness of aim, his all-absorbing consecration, his 
growing resolution and activity — superior to discourage- 
ment and undaunted by enemies, and never relinquish- 
ing its object till he has lost the power of exertion — and 
I will show you the man who, with the buoyant hopes 
of a Christian, was once a great sinner. The love of 
Christ constrains him, as it constrained the great Apostle, 
and with him he can say, '' Of sinners I am the chief," 
• — "By the grace of God, I am what I am!" Who 
washed the Saviour's feet with her tears, and wiped them 
with the hair of her head ? It was the Mary w4io loved 
much, because she had much forgiven. What single 
church in the world was ever so distinguished for its 
graces and its conduct, and the light of which shone so 
brightly, and so long, as the first Christian Church that 
was gathered at Jerusalem? And this church was 
composed of persons who had been preeminently vile, 
and who had " killed the Prince of life." They were 
what Bunyan calls " Jerusalem sinners." Great sin- 
ners, when once brought to the knowledge of Christ, are 



TO SALVATION BY THE CROSS. 199 

for the most part the most shining examples of piety, and 
stand out before the world for the instruction and comfort 
of those who fear God and love his Son. Such instances 
of conversion in a family, in a congregation, or in a town, 
are "monuments and mirrors of mercy," and they love 
to " show forth the praises of Him who called them out 
of darkness into his marvelous light." Our views of 
our obligations to the divine mercy are always de- 
termined by our views of personal sinfulness. It is not 
to dissever the remembrance of past sins from the grace 
that pardons them, and its consequent claims, that great 
sinners are so often brought to the Cross. 

There is a single thought with which I will close the 
present chapter. It is one which will bear to be often 
repeated. JYo man is excusable for neglecting so great 
salvation. It is a great salvation that saves great sinners 
through so great a Saviour. '' If I had not come and 
spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now there 
is no cloak for their sin." What will his excuse be at 
the day of judgment, who sees so many of the worst of 
sinners saved 1 Will it be that the sin of Adam brought 
him, without any actual transgression of his own, into a 
state of sin and misery 1 He will there see that thou- 
sands born in sin like himself, and irresistibly prone to 
evil, have laid hold of that method of mercy, which, 
without any consent or doing of their own, forms a won- 
derful counterpart to the first apostacy. Will it be that 
he was exposed to peculiar snares and temptations? 
Will it be that he was depressed, and discouraged 
by a view of his sins, from seeking the kingdom of 
God '? Will it be that his sins had gained such amazing 
power over his mind, that it was vain for him to think of 
becoming a Christian ? Will it be that he was so wicked 
as to be beyond the reach of mercy ? Will it be that God 



200 THE GREATNESS OF SIN NO OBSTACLE 

was so severe and inexorable that it was useless for him 
to sue for pardon ? Will it be that the Cross brought no 
glad tidings of great joy to such a sinner as he ? Will it 
be that no man who has lived as he has lived, that heis 
so " sold himself to commit deeds of wickedness," that 
has abused such light and such privileges, that has passed 
through so many affecting scenes, and for whom so much 
was done to prevent his falling into perdition, and all in 
vain, never obtained mercy 1 No, it will be none of all 
these. Great multitudes, even viler than he, will then 
be accepted in the Beloved, while he is cast out. He 
will see then that nothing could have destroyed him if 
he had returned to God through the Cross of Christ. 
Greater sinners than he will rise up in the judgment and 
protest that he might have been saved as well as they, 
and upon the same condescending and gracious terms. 
And what cutting and bitter reflections will then pass 
through his mind ! " Oh, why, why did I not flee to the 
blood of the Cross ! Why did I not listen, while it was 
called to-day ! Why did I so often and so long turn a 
deaf ear to the counsels of heavenly mercy ! I was a 
great sinner — but so were those who washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb ; and 
now they are before the throne of God, and worship him 
day and night in his temple, and I am a wretched out- 
cast !" 

Bitter, most bitter, will be such reproaches. How true 
it is that the sinner Avill be hereafter his Bwn tormentor ! 
He needs no vengeful storm of almighty wrath to crush 
him, for he is crushed under the burden of his own 
reproaches. Nor can he escape, any more than he can 
run away from himself. There will be no mercy for him 
to think of then, save the mercy he has abused. Truly, 
that dismal world will be a world of tears. Sighing and 



TO SALVATION BY THE CROSS. 201 

sorrow will go up from it, and groans will mingle with 
its inflicted wrath and anguish. 

Think, then, of the Cross and his rich mercy, his free, 
immeasurable, everlasting mercy, whose " blood maketh 
the foulest clean." If you are the greatest sinner in the 
world, then have you the greatest need of Christ, and 
what is more, the greatest encouragement to come to 
him. There is room for the greatest sinner, because 
there is room for the least. The least has sinned enough 
to perish without an interest in the Cross, and the great- 
est has not sinned so much but the Cross may be honored 
in his salvation. 

** My crimes are great, but don't surpass 
The power and glory of thy grace. 
Great God, thy nature hath no bound ; 
So let thy pardoning love be found." 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

The doctrine of the Cross, as it has been exhibited in 
the preceding chapter, is " so far removed from the 
common conceptions of men, that it is not wonderful 
they should scrutinize its moral aspect and influence." 
There are not wanting those who accuse these doctrines 
of having a licentious tendency ; who affirm that they 
encourage men to sin ; and that if they be true, there is 
no small weight in the ancient and Antinomian objection : 
'^ Let us continue in sin, that grace may abound." For 
consider what the great doctrines of the Cross are. Ac- 
cording to the statements of the sacred volume, the 
pardon of all true believers is procured exclusively by the 
atoning blood of the Son of God ; their justification consists 
in being accounted righteous, and treated as perfectly obe- 
dient subjects of God's government only for the righteous- 
nessof Jesus Christ, imputed to them by God, and received 
by faith. Nothing which they have done, or can per- 
form, can answer the requisitions of the divine law. No 
obedience, no good works, no righteousness of their 
own, either in whole or in part, constitute the basis of 
their acceptance in the sight of God. In receiving Christ, 
all dependence upon any services of their own is re- 
nounced. Their duties have no more to do with the 
meritorious ground of their acceptance than their sins, 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 203 

because neither of them have anything to do with it. They 
are justified on the same grounds on which the pardoned 
thief was justified, who had no good works to plead, and 
whose only ground of hope was the atoning and justify- 
ing Saviour, who hung bleeding by his side. Besides 
this, they have the assurance of perseverance in the 
divine life — promises that they shall never so fall away 
as finally to perish, and that their names are written in 
heaven, and will never be obliterated from the Lamb's 
book of life. Now we affirm that the cordial reception 
and inwrought persuasion of these truths, so far from re- 
laxing the bonds of moral obligation and tending to licen- 
tiousness, purifies the heart and renovates the character. 
The man who derives from them the smallest encourage- 
ment to sin, has never understood and felt them as he 
ought ; has failed to view them in some of their most 
interesting and holiest relations ; and while he may hope 
Christ Jesus is of God made '' to him wisdom, righteous- 
ness and redemption," is fatally deceived in that hope, 
unless he is made of God to him ^' sanctification" also. 
We will expand these thoughts by the following distinct 
observations : 

The dispensation of grace by the C^'oss of Christ , so far 
from making void, or abating, confirms and establishes the 
obligations of the moral law. The obligation of men to 
practical righteousness is an immutable obligation. It is 
founded in the nature of the Deity, and in the nature and 
relations which men sustain to him and to one another. 
It cannot be relaxed, but is everywhere binding, under 
every possible condition of man's existence, and through 
interminable ages. It is binding on those who never 
fell, and where its penalty has not been incurred ; and 
not less binding on those who fell, and where its penalty 
is eternally endured. It is binding on impenitent and 



204 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

unbelieving men who are still under its wrath and curse ; 
and equally binding on all true believers, in whose favor 
its penalty is graciously remitted through him who bore 
it in their place. It is written upon the conscience in 
lines that can never be effaced ; it is published in the 
Scriptures, there to stand as the unalterable expression of 
the divine authority ; and so long as God and creatures 
remain what they are, can never be abrogated or modi- 
fied. Whatever authority it had before men believe the 
Gospel, it has afterwards. It does not cease to be the 
rule of life and duty^ because it is no longer the rule of jus- 
tification. It does not cease to require obedience, either 
because it has been violated, or because the obedience ii 
requires can no longer be the ground of acceptance with 
God. The vicarious obedience of the Cross, though gra- 
ciously imputed to the believer for his justification, was 
never designed to be substituted in the place of his own 
personal holiness for any other purpose than his justifica- 
tion merely. If, as has sometimes been most unscriptur- 
ally represented, the obedience of the Saviour relieves the 
believer from all personal obedience ; or if, as has been 
incautiously represented, the design of the Cross is to 
relax the law in its requirements, and accommodate it to 
the weaknesses and frailty of men ; if the extent of their 
disposition to obey be the measure of their obligations, 
and they are bound to do only what they are inclined to 
do ; then should we indeed '^ make void the law through 
faith." But if the Gospel teaches, that neither justifica- 
tion through another's righteousness, nor the inability of 
the creature, affects for a moment the extent and force of 
his obligations to personal obedience, and that the holy 
Lawgiver will as soon cease to exist, as cease to require 
a holy, spiritual and perfect obedience ; then does it 
^' establish the law." And does not the Cross most dis- 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 205 

tinctly and abundantly teach this ? Is it behind the law 
as a system of moral obligation ? Does it not everywhere 
recognize, and uphold, and honor the authority of the 
law, and put its seal of blood upon its undiminished ob- 
ligations to holiness ? Does not the sufferer of Calvary 
say, ^' Think not that I am come to destroy the law; I 
am not come to destroy, but to fulfill V^ Is not the uni- 
form language of his Gospel, ''Be ye holy, for I am 
holy 1" Does not every command it issues require the 
holiness of the heart, as the indispensable element of all 
obedience ? and does it not discountenance all pretensions 
to obedience that flow not from such a source 1 Does it 
not elevate the standard of practical godliness and sound 
morality far above the sickly and stinted forms of worldly 
virtue, and call upon its disciples to carry the principles 
and influence of their religion into all places, all society, all 
employments, '' everywhere manifesting truth and hon- 
esty, sobriety and honor, kindness and the love of God 1" 
Does it not maintain the most uncompromising hostility 
to every form and degree of wickedness, both of principle 
and practice, and stand separate and aloof from all fellow- 
ship with the works of darkness 1 These things are too 
obvious to be questioned; and were they not obvious, 
wicked men themselves would love the Gospel with all 
their hearts. Nothing is more characteristic of the Cross 
than the holy salvation it reveals. It saves not in sin, 
but /row sin. The great reason why a world that lieth 
in wickedness is so hostile to this method of grace is, 
that it proclaims so holy a salvation, demands the sacri- 
fice of every idol, and asserts the undiminished preroga- 
tives of the Supreme Lawgiver. 

The method of salvation by the Cross of Christy also 
reveals the only motives and the only grace by which men 
become holy. The motives and influences under which 



206 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

men become holy, are not found under a purely legal 
dispensation. Notwithstanding the excellences and ob- 
ligations of the law to which we have just referred, the 
Scriptures, and universal experience and observation, 
evince that, so far as regards every fallen race of intelli- 
gences in the universe, those who are under no other 
than a purely legal dispensation are under the dominion 
of sin. Had God designed to reclaim the apostate angels, 
he would never have left them under the bitter bondage 
of a broken law. The government which declares, 
obey and live, or transgress and die, righteous and equita- 
ble as it is, never, since the fall of angels and men, made 
one of the human family holy. It might make men 
cautious in their outward deportment — abstemious and 
watchful — exact and punctual in their morality ; but 
never j^et did it reach the heart, and fill it with holy love. 
The best spirit it ever produces is that self-righteous and 
legal spirit, which takes its rise from motives and aims 
which God disapproves and condemns. It operates upon 
the fears of men, but awakens no holy affection. It makes 
them slaves, but not children. The stronger its heavy 
bonds are drawn around the conscience, the more cer- 
tainly does the depraved heart resist them ; and the more 
inflexible its penalty, the more obdurate is the sinner's 
rebellion. The most it ever accomplishes, is to impart a 
sense of obligation ; to uncover the depths of sin within 
the soul; to awaken all that is terrible in apprehension, 
and to leave the transgressor in the frenzy of despair, 
because it is impossible for him to escape its curses. While 
in the act of subduing and restraining his outward sins, 
it is the occasion of his plunging into deeper inward 
wickedness. The truth of this observation is confirmed 
by the moral history of every deeply convinced sinner. 
Under the strongest and most painful convictions, and 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 207 

more generally in proportion to the strength and distress 
of them, he sins faster and stronger, as the clouds of 
despair thicken and grow black over his head. The 
more he increases his self-righteous strivings after holi- 
ness, the more is he discouraged by a sense of his weak- 
ness, till, with Paul, '^ the commandment which was or- 
dained to life, he finds to be unto death." The melancholy 
fact is, men are too far gone in depravity and guilt to be 
delivered from sin by a mere sense of obligation, however 
strong and distressing those convictions may be. The 
law is of important use in leading them to a dispensation 
of mercy ; but shut out a dispensation of mercy, and 
" when the commandment comes, sin revives and the 
sinner dies." His efforts are of no avail ; his every hope 
is fled ; and not unfrequently his iniquity, instead of 
being strong, becomes desperate and reckless. Many is 
the convinced sinner, to whom, under this terrible state 
of mind, life itself has been a burden, and w^ho, but for 
the interposing providence of that God who wounds to 
heal, would have rushed unbidden into the presence of 
his Maker. But where sin and the adversary are re- 
strained from these fearful excesses, what wonder if, in 
this bondage of iniquity, shut out from hope, and with a 
totally depraved heart within him, the only effect of the 
law should be to operate upon his corrupt desires, provoke 
resistance, and lead him to the course of conduct which 
it forbids 1 Inexcusably and unspeakably sinful as all 
this is, such is human nature, such is man, degraded, 
rebellious man. In a purely sinful being, as every unre- 
generate man is, iniquity always becomes more active by 
the restraints put upon it, save when those restraints are 
mingled with all-conquering love. Complacency for the 
disobedient, the law knows not 5 mercy for him it knows 



208 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

not ; and its strong hand of obligation and penalty only 
drives him to despair of holiness. 

Men need something more than to become acquainted 
with their obligations and their sins. It is as true of the 
moral as of the ceremonial code, that the law '' was 
added because of transgressions, until the promised Seed 
should come." It was to prepare men to receive the 
Gospel. They were placed under a legal dispensation, 
and are continued under it now, with the view of leading 
them to a dispensation of grace. They go not for holi- 
ness to the mount that burneth with fire, nor to the thick 
darkness, nor to the forbidding thunder. The " minis- 
tration of condemnation," glorious as it is, is the minis- 
tration of condemnation only. The doctrine of the 
Cross furnishes motives and exerts an influence to holi- 
ness which the law does not know. While it abates no 
obligation of the law, it carries along with it truths 
unknown to a broken covenant, and truths through the 
instrumentality of which holy affections are produced 
and spring up in the inner man, while the outer man 
becomes progressively conformed to the law of God. 
^' The words that I speak unto you," saith the Saviour, 
" they are spirit and they are Zi/e." They possess a 
quickening, a life-giving influence. They are the only 
system of truth that comes clothed and attended with 
divine power, because the only system that is associated 
with the mighty agency of the Holy Ghost. This is one 
of their great peculiarities, and is found only in intimate 
connection with the blood of sprinkling. The Spirit was 
procured by Christ — is sent by Christ — is his spirit. The 
apostle, when speaking of the effects of his influence, is 
careful to speak of them as " the sanctification of the 
spirit, through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 209 

The system of truth of which the Cross is the centre, in 
prescribing- rules of holy living, first establishes the great 
principles of faith from which all holy living proceeds, 
and then gives them efficacy by the promised and super- 
added power of God. The first thing it does, is to teach 
the sinner his lost and ruined condition, and show him 
that in himself he is without hope. This done, it sum- 
mons all its instructions, all the authority of its gracious 
Author, all its love and compassion, all its offers of 
mercy, and all its persuasive and melting tenderness, to 
lead him to Him who was crucified. That mighty Spirit 
who illuminates the darkened understanding, and takes 
away tlie heart of stone, '' takes of the things that are 
Christ's and shows them unto him ;" and in view of the 
wonderful discovery, the affecting vision of the glory of 
God in the face of his dear Son, the love of God is shed 
abroad in his heart, and he feels that he is no more 
'' under the law but under grace " — the child of grace, 
the servant of grace, and happy only in its influence and 
authority. The Cross breaks the bars of his prison, 
dissolves the bondage of the curse, proclaims to him a 
free and gracious deliverance, clothes him with a right- 
eousness that meets the claims of the law, tells him of the 
**sure mercies of David," encourages him to an obe- 
dience that is no longer embarrassed with '• a certain 
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation," 
fills his desponding and distracted heart with hope, and 
bids him go on his way rejoicing. And who does not see 
that such a r^n has principles and affections that lead 
him, with an honest, though it may be with a weak and 
inconstant mind, to abhor that *' which is evil and cleave 
to that which is good ?" " Dead to the law by the body 
of Christ, he is married to another, even to him who is 
raised from the dead, that he should bring forth fruit unto 



210 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROeS. 

God." Sacred influences act upon him to which he was 
before a stranger ; means of sanctification are powerful 
that were before powerless ; and relations now exist 
between him and God that were before unknown. He 
lifts his eye to heaven and says, Abba Father ! and 
instead of being embarrassed and subjugated by the 
terrors of a slave, he is conscious of that filial, dutiful 
spirit, which '' delights in the law of God after the 
inward man ;" while that very Cross which assures him 
of the pardon of sin, also assures him of its ultimate 
destruction. '' There is forgiveness with thee, that thou 
mayest be feared." Christian men gain the victory over 
sin, by enjoying the favor of God, and living in com- 
munion with the Cross. The source of spiritual life is 
found in Christ, and not out of him. Hope in him is 
one of the great elements of spiritual advancement. 
The thought that cheers and refreshes, and puts glad- 
ness into the heart of the trembling believer, is, " Why 
art thou cast down, my soul ! and why art thou dis- 
quieted within me 1 Hope thou in God, for I shall yet 
praise him for the help of his countenance !" He is no 
longer *' tossed with tempest and not comforted ;" but 
the "joy of the Lord is his strength," and he '' runs in 
the way of God's commandments because God has 
enlarged his heart." Though clogged with a body of 
sin, and imprisoned within a sinning world, he still lives 
for eternity, anticipates his heavenly inheritance, thinks 
much and often of the " glory to be hereafter revealed," 
and is habitually '' looking for the appearing of the 
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 

There is another important principle connected with 
the Cross of Christ, that secures its sanctifying tendency. 
It relates to the characters themselves who enjoy the blessings 
iff that salvation which the Cross purchases. They are 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 211 

not all men indiscriminately. They are not the un- 
righteous, but the righteous ; they are not the impure 
and unholy, but the ^'pure in heart." They are those 
who are born of God ; who hate and forsake sin ; 
who hunger and thirst after righteousness ; who love 
God and keep his commandments ; who, in one word, 
believe in Christ, and ^^live by the faith of the Son of 
God, who loved them and gave himself for them." The 
Son of God was not obedient unto death, for the purpose 
of saving those who reject him. Save that a double con- 
demnation awaits them for having rejected this great 
salvation, all such persons sustain the same relation to 
the penalty of the divine law which they would have 
sustained, had the Saviour never died. Were God to 
save them, he would exhibit himself to the world a.s 
the rewarder of iniquity, and by thus denying himself, 
would blot out the glory of his kingdom. ''Without 
holiness, no man shall see the Lord." Fearfully gloomy 
does the last dispensation of truth and mercy which the 
world will ever know, represent the prospects of the in- 
corrigibly wicked. It is not within the compass of God's 
largest compassions — it belongs not to his rightful prero- 
gative — it is not within the range either of a moral or 
natural possibility, that such persons should be saved. 
Not until men receive the Gospel, have they the least war- 
rant to its pardon or its hopes. This single fact shows us, 
in the first place, the absurdity of the objection, that the 
Cross of Christ makes any concessions to the ungodly, or 
in the smallest degree connives at their wickedness. Most 
certainly, no encouragement to sin is found in that 
method of mercy which leaves the incorrigible sinner 
imder condemnation, tells him that he is without God and 
without hope, and thunders in his ear, " He that belie v- 
eth not shall be damned." And it shows, in the next 



212 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

place, that no sooner does the grace of God in Jesiis 
Christ manifest itself to the soul, enabling it to believe 
in the Saviour, than the sinful character of man is 
changed. For what is the faith that thus receives Christ 
Jesus the Lord ? What is that moral state of mind, in 
the exercise of which men humble themselves before 
God, confess and feel that they are justly condemned, 
renounce their own righteousness, cast themselves into 
the arms of boundless mercy, and confide in the mighty 
Saviour 1 How does the soul arrive at this conclusion, 
and what are the predominant affections that lead to it? 
It is not naturally in a posture to receive the truth of the 
Cross, but revolts from it, and turns with eagerness to 
other foundations of confidence. There is no true an- 
swer to this question but that which has just been 
given, and that is, that his sinful character is changed. 
The believer is not what he once was, ^^ dead in tres- 
passes and sins." He is a changed man — changed by 
the mighty power of God— or he would not be a believer 
in Jesus. ''As many as received him, to them gave he 
power to become the sons of God, even to them that be- 
lieve in his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of 
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.^' 
Their faith is no cold speculation, nor is it the offspring 
of wild enthusiasm ; nor is it any evanescent feeling or 
fancy. It is not the growth of this low world, but some- 
thing purely of celestial origin. It is not wrought in the 
soul by its own inherent powers and faculties, but, like 
the love of God, is shed abroad in it by the Holy Ghost. 
It is the act of the creature, only because it is " the gift of 
God." It does not first ascend from man to God, but 
first descends from God to man. It is the effect of that 
new creation, transforaiing the soul that was before dead 
in sin. With such a state of mind, entirely changed in 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 213 

regard to God and all divine objects, old things done 
away and all things having become new, men receive 
Jesus Christ. And who does not see that in doing this, 
from such a state of moral feeling, they welcome the 
entire dominion of the Saviour over their hearts and life ? 
This, indeed, is one of the necessary actings of true faith. 
Not more certainly does it look to Jesus as the great 
Teacher, submitting the understanding to the light of 
his truth — not more certainly does it look to him as the 
great High Priest, through whose sacrifice there is par- 
don and life — than it looks to him as the great King and 
Lawgiver, cheerfully submitting to his laws and govern- 
ment. In the same measure, therefore, in which a man 
possesses the faith of the Gospel, does he delight to do 
the will of God, and his law is within his heart. His 
commandments are no longer grievous, nor is it any 
longer a hardship to him to live, not unto himself, but 
to him who died for him, and rose again. With all his 
imperfections, his holiness is genuine and real. He de- 
sires to be holy, as God is holy, and strives to walk worthy 
of his high calling, as one of his chosen and adopted child- 
ren. He is imbued with the spirit of the Gospel, and is 
baptized with the love of his Divine Master. His spirit is 
directly opposite to the love of sinning. He just begins to 
realize some relief from the bondage of his sins, and to 
rejoice in the truth, that the Saviour in whom he confides 
" gave himself for his people, that he might redeem them 
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar peo- 
ple, zealous of good works." He cannot sin as he once did, 
because he is born of God. Such is the reasoning of the 
Apostle when asserting the holiness of the Cross : ''What 
shall we say, then 1 Shall we continue in sin^ that grace 
may abound 1 God forbid ! How shall we, who are dead 
to sin, live any longer therein?" All the influences of 



214 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

the Cross, therefore, are holy influences. It is by their 
union and communion with him who was crucified, that 
the views of believers become elevated, their aflections 
spiritual, their motives pure, their courage invigorated, 
and their victory over sin ultimately sure. '^ If a man 
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is 
withered." True holiness flourishes only in the soil en- 
riched by the blood of the Cross. It is because Jesus 
died, that his followers die unto sin ; and it is because 
he lives, that they live unto God. The faith by which 
the salvation of the Cross is received, is but another 
name for holiness, and the believer but another name for 
one who, although he has but begun his spiritual ca 
reer, and will often halt on his way, yet perseveres in his 
path, and, like the rising light, sometimes eclipsed by 
passing clouds, and sometimes even obscured by the 
blacker tempest, shines more and more unto the perfect 
day. 

There is also another principle in the method of mercy 
by the Cross, which secures its hallowed tendencies. 
While it is true that he who is once justified is always 
justified, and that no sins can vitiate his title to eternal 
life, such is the nature of the Gospel, that no believer can 
have a comfortable sense of his acceptance^ who loses for a 
time his love of God and holiness, and falls into sin. The 
promises of God in Jesus Christ have secured to every 
true Christian the ultimate blessings of a justified state ; 
but they have nowhere secured to him the constant 
exercise of his faith, and the consequent evidence that- 
he is among the justified. He may lose the manifest- 
ations of the divine love, and all that inward sense of 
his adoption into the divine family, that are necessary to 
a comfortable hope that he has a part with God's chosen. 
Christians who give way to the spirit of the world ; who 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 215 

yield to temptation, falter in their course, and sin against 
God by falling from their steadfastness, must pay the 
forfeiture of their backsliding by the loss of all comfort- 
able intimations of pardon. They do sin, they may 
sin, and yet be Christians; though they can never be- 
come dead in sin, as they once were. Those there have 
been, who have sinned fearfully after they have become 
Christians, and whose wickedness has been the more 
aggravated, both in the sight of God and man, because 
they committed it. But even though good men, they 
themselves at such seasons cannot have evidence that 
they are good men. They cannot feel that they have 
passed from death unto life, while the law of their mind 
brings them into captivity to the law of sin. They can- 
not have unclouded views of their interest in Christ, so 
long as they walk after the fashion of this world. They 
cannot say, under the manifestations of his love, '^ My 
Beloved is mine, and I am his," when they are im- 
pure, like David ; false and profane, like Peter ; in- 
temperate, like the disciples of Corinth ; lukewarm, like 
Laodicea; like the Church of Ephesus, have forsaken their 
first love ; or, like not a few in every age, do not '^ walk 
honestly toward them that are without." They are 
strangers then to the sweetness of the promise, and have 
" received the spirit of bondage again to fear." They 
may contemplate Christ '' as revealed in the word, but 
cannot find Christ revealed in the heart." Their hopes 
are joyless, and seem to them as refuges of lies. The 
dew of heaven no longer rests upon their branch. The 
candle of the Lord no longer shines upon their head, and 
God their Maker no longer gives them songs in the night. 
They forsake the fellowship of the Lord's people, keej) 
at a distance from the table of his grace, and instead of 
following the footsteps of the flock and lying down in 



216 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

green pastures, and beside the still waters, they are 
like sheep without a shepherd, and wandering upon the 
mountains in the cloudy and dark day. And a most 
merciful dispensation is this, that '' a settled peace and 
a guilty conscience cannot dwell together in the same 
bosom." And it deserves particular remark, that God 
has so thrown this protection around the claims of holi- 
ness, that no Christian can tell how few or how small 
the sins that may grieve the spirit of grace from his 
bosom ; and no subtilty or research can describe with pre- 
cision the sin that may not quench the light of all his 
hopes. And what is this, but the solemn and affecting 
admonition, ^' The Lord knoweth them that are his," 
and let him that nameth the name of Christ, '' depart 
from all iniquity?" When the believer, therefore, de- 
liberately allows himself in sin — in any sin — he need not 
be disappointed if he finds it a difficult problem to decide, 
whether he is a believer. He must pause in solicitude 
and apprehension. It becomes more and more a question 
of deep import, whether he has anything more than " a 
name that he liveth." And if he comes to the con- 
clusion that he is a deceived man ; if he is even driven 
to despair, and through despair to renewed self-abase- 
ment and godly sorrow ; and through deep repentance 
once more to hear the voice of heavenly mercy ; he may 
thank his Heavenly Father, whose paternal eye and 
heart have been upon him in all his wanderings, that he 
has "visited his iniquity with the rod, and his transgres- 
sion with stripes," but his " loving kindness has not 
taken from him, nor suffered his faithfulness to fail." He 
may adore the reclaiming power of that Cross that has 
put its seal to the promise, " Though a just man fall 
seven times, he shall rise again." 

Nor are there wanting facts that are in keeping with 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 2X7 

all the preceding principles. Where do we look for the 
holiest men, and the most devout worshipers of God 1 
Is it where Christ is disowned and rejected, or where he 
is believed and honored, and the attractions of his Cross 
are felt 1 Let the experience of the Christian world give 
the answer. Where does penitence weep, but at the 
Cross '? Where is the flesh humbled and pride debased, 
but at the Cross? Where, if not at the Cross, does 
unwearied diligence in well-doing find its impulse and 
encouragement '? Where else does the sinner hold inter- 
course with God 1 Where is Christian vigilance unsleep- 
ing, if not at the Cross 1 Where does faith work by love, 
or hope purify, or holy fear alarm, or holy promise com- 
fort, or the meekness of wisdom rectify the inequalities of 
the natural temperament, but at the Cross? What, but the 
balmy atmosphere of the Cross, seasons the conversation, 
so " that it ministers grace to them that hear it ?" What 
consecrates time, talent, and property and influence to 
their true ends, but the love of Christ ? Where else are 
the lessons of patience and resignation, and forgiveness 
of enemies, and of every social virtue? And where else 
is the struggling believer, looking back on the past, and 
in near view of the future, ever heard to say, " I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my course," except 
when lying at the foot of the Cross 1 Obliterate all the 
holiness in our world that is the sole effect of the Cross, 
and how much, think you, would there be left ? Where 
would the multitude of witnesses to the powe; of vital 
godliness be found, if you seek them not among believers 
in the Cross ? Where would you look for the history of 
vital piety in the past ages of the world, if not in the 
very history of that religion of which the Cross of Christ 
is the substance and expression? Nowhere. These 
10 



218 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

things cannot be found, except as they are connected 
with, the Cross. Mark the effects of preaching Christ 
and him crucified, with those produced by the philosophy 
of the Schools, by the Pelagianism and Arianism of the 
fourth and fifth centuries, by the modern preachers of 
Germany and Switzerland, by the cold and heartless 
morality which freezes on the lips of the Unitarian min- 
istry in our own land, and it will be no difficult matter 
to see which is the better adapted to promote the '' holi- 
ness without which no man shall see the Lord." The 
Cross collects all the moral considerations in the universe, 
and gives them all their force and tenderness. It is the 
voice of the Creator uttered in more attractive emphasis 
than creation speaks. It is the Lawgiver, uttering the 
appeal, " If ye love me, keep my commandments." It 
is the voice of the soul, telling its value by the price of 
its redemption. It is the supreme good, throwing a dark 
shadow over the kingdoms of this world, and all the 
glory of them. It is a tranquil conscience, grace to help 
in the time of need, exceeding great and precious pro- 
mises, victory over every foe, triumph over death and the 
grave, and a heaven of holiness where Jesus dwells. 
There is no name given under heaven, which lips of 
incorrigible wickedness may pronounce Avith less impu- 
nity, than the name of Jesus ; and no thought more 
absolutely withering, even to the secret purpose of sin- 
ning, than the thought of the Cross. 

I know that no man is perfectly sanctified in this life, 
and have looked with no small concern on some modern 
fanatics who profess to obtain sinless perfection. It 
implies no palliation for sin, that we are constrained to 
confess that such is its power over the best of men, that 
it is felt and seen in their character and conduct to the 



THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 219 

end of life. If any imagine it is otherwise with them- 
selves, and find not occasion for constant conflict and 
struggles, it is because they are either unacquainted with 
themselves, or their standard of holiness is very low. 
This disordered world, staggering under the curse of God, 
was not transformed from its primitive beauty and love- 
liness to be the habitation of angels. These frail bodies, 
subject to pain, disease, infirmity and death, were not 
made to be the abode of pure and perfect spirits. As the 
hour draws nigh when sin almost ceases to oppress, and 
the adversary to ensnare, it is a strong indication that the 
earthly house of this tabernacle is about to be taken 
down, and this low earth to be exchanged for the new 
heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness. But though doomed to the struggle, the 
Christian is sure of the ultimate victory. Let it be your 
aim, your effort, and your prayer, to look continually 
toward the crown. Let your very sorrows and griefs 
be indications of a holy mind ; and when you hang your 
harps upon the willows, let it be because you feel your 
distance from God, and have sinned against him you 
most love. 

I may be addressing some who have no holiness. We 
have no other gospel to proclaim to the men of the world, 
than that proclaimed to the people of God. It is '' Jesus 
Christ made of God to you sanctificatioriy^' as well as 
pardon. You will never know what holiness is, until 
you have felt the power of grace in Jesus Christ. The 
Cross is not less the refuge of the polluted, than the con- 
demned. It is the only way to holiness. If you would 
be holy, you must begin with receiving Jesus Christ. 
Wanderer from the paths of rectitude and peace, he would 
lead you back. Slave of sin, he would fain break thy 



220 THE HOLINESS OF THE CROSS. 

chains, and set thee free. There is no peace, saith my 
God, to the wicked. There is no employment, no joy, 
no society, no place in heaven, for an unholy man. 
Heaven would be no heaven to the man whom the Cross 
has not made holy. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS, IN DISTINCTION FROM 
RELIGIONS THAT ARE FALSE AND SPURIOUS. 

Religion consists in conformity to God, and the C/oss 
of Christ alone produces that conformity. It is its own 
witness, and carries in itself infallible evidence of its 
divine origin. Those who are truly the subjects of it will 
never renounce it for a religion that is false ; while those 
who are not truly the subjects of it are continually liable 
to renounce it for any false system that is more in accord- 
ance with their own corrupt and selfish desires. The 
rehgion of the Cross possesses some great characteristics, 
whereby it is known and distinguished from all other 
religions. The object of the present chapter is to exhibit 
some of these prominent and distinctive features. I say 
some of these, because we cannot exhibit them all with- 
out occupying time which we may not occupy. 

The first great characteristic of the religion of the Cross 
is, that it is the religion of principle, in distinction from 
the religion of impulse. It addresses itself to the under- 
standing and conscience, and makes no appeal to igno- 
rance and superstition. Rich in truth, it sets before the 
minds of men the great objects of Christian affection ; 
and by thus enlightening the conscience, gives force and 
energy to the bonds of Christian obligation. It aims at 
carrying the heart by first convincing the judgment. Its 



222 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

great axiom is, " To him that knoweth to do good, and 
doeth it not, to him it is sin." The faith it requires is 
not a blind credulity ; nor is the obedience it enjoins, obe- 
dience to anything short of the truth of God. It is a reli- 
gion founded upon the Holy Scriptures, and they alone are 
the test by which its genuineness is to be proved, because 
they alone are the rule of faith and practice, and by them 
will all men be judged at the last day. Religions that 
are propagated by the power of human laws, and are 
founded on the traditions and commandments of men, 
never aim at enlightening the conscience ; while the 
religion of the Cross, "hj manifestation of the truths 
commends itself to every man's conscience in the sight 
of God." The only means adopted by the Cross to make 
men Christians, consist in exhibiting and enforcing its 
truths; and the only way in which men themselves 
become Christians, is by understanding these truths, and 
feeling their power. Our impressions of truth may be 
right or wrong, they may be permanent or mutable, 
advancing or retrograde, strong or weak ; but the truth 
itself remains the same. Wherever the religion of the 
Cross, therefore, is experienced, and to whatever degree 
it is experienced, it grows out of the truths which the 
Cross reveals. Whatever a man's hopes and professions 
may be, if he neither perceives these truths, nor feels 
their power, he is no Christian. Just as the seed con- 
tains the tree, and comprehends the germ of all its future 
development, and gives character to the trunk, the 
branches, the leaves, the blossoms, the fruit — so do the 
principles of the Cross lie at the foundation of its reli- 
gion. That religion is but the exemplification of its 
truths. They give the mind, the heart, the character, a 
new direction ; they constitute the model on which all 
living Christianity is formed. They are not ineffectual 



THE IIELIGION OF THE CROSS. 223 

and abortive principles : wherever they are followed out 
in their legitimate results, they produce the same religious 
character all the world over. The principles of the Gos- 
pel are in themselves fitted to exert a wonderful influence. 
God revealed them for tjiis purpose ; and all who receive 
them intend and desire that they should exert that influ- 
ence on themselves. Our principles do not grow out of 
our religion, but our religion out of our principles. We 
begin with principle and not with feeling. The religion 
of every man is just what his principles make it. We 
must have been very inattentive readers of the Scriptures, 
not to have remarked the frequency and force with which 
they express these thoughts. They instruct us, that 
" without faith it is impossible to please God." Paul 
based the duties of piety upon the foundation of its doc- 
trines ; and not until he had laid this foundation deep 
and broad, did he deduce the practical conclusion, ^' I 
beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." 
In his epistle to Titus, he urged him to constancy in 
inculcating the great principles of the Gospel, with the 
special view that '' they which have believed in God 
might be careful to maintain good works." Common 
sense confirms the truth and importance of these instruc- 
tions. The experience of good men shows nothing more 
clearly than that in whatever degree they possess the reli- 
gion of the Gospel, and practice its duties, in the same 
degree do they understand its principles and love to 
understand them. There are not wanting causes of 
religious excitement, where there is no religion. It is a 
very easy thing to interest and work up tlie sensibilities 
of men. Powerful and artful appeals to the passions 
and the imagination may do this ; tlie pomp and solem- 



224 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

nity of exterior worship, the imposing grandeur and 
magnificence of its temples, its golden images and altars, 
its' enchanting music, its rich vestments, and its myste- 
rious ceremonies, may do this ; while in all this there 
may not be one great principle of the Gospel to sink into 
the soul. Wherever there is Christian emotion, there is 
Christian principle ; and wherever there is strong emo- 
tion, there must be strong principle for it to rest upon, 
else it is spurious. Religious ecstacy without high reli 
gious principle is delusion. Ravishing sentimentalism is 
not piety. The great principles of the Cross, under- 
stood, believed, loved, and felt in their practical influence, 
constitute true religion. The self-conceit, self-righteous 
ness, self-complacency and false hopes of men cannot 
bear the scrutiny of truth ; while the truth, in all the 
consistency and vigor of its principles, is the light, and 
life, and strength of all those hopes of which the Cross 
is the foundation, and that religion of which the Cross is 
the brightest example. The Cross utters the language 
of principle. No event was ever so emphatically expres- 
sive of principle, as that memorable scene on Calvary. 
It was not from impulse that the Saviour died. It was 
not for expediency, but for truth and principle. It was 
to illustrate and confirm the unchanging principles of his 
government, that '' God so loved the world that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." 

Another characteristic of the religion of the Cross is, 
that it is a spiritual religion^ in opposition to a religion of 
forms. The religion of the Cross recognizes the existence 
of some form of religious worship ; that is, it prescribes 
positive institutions, as well as moral duties. But they 
arc very few, as well as exceedingly simple and signi- 
ficant. They are comprised in the institution of the 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. ^25 

Christian ministry, the public worship of God on the 
Lord's Day, a public profession of religion, baptism and 
the Lord's Supper, and the existence of a visible church, 
or religious society, on which is imposed the obligation of 
mutual watchfulness and discipline. Every good man 
should welcome the obligation of honoring these forms 
of godliness, and maintaining these divinely authorized 
institutions. The history of the Church of God has 
shown that it is no easy matter to stem the torrent of 
infidelity and corruption, where these institutions are 
neglected. Though men may maintain all the forms of 
religion, without possessing the inward spirit of religion 
itself, yet where its instituted forms are neglected, its 
inward spirit dies away. When we speak, therefore, of a 
spiritual religion, in opposition to a religion of mere forms, 
we do not do so with any view of bringing the instituted 
forms of Christianity into contempt, or even neglect, or 
with any desire of depreciating them. But while we pay 
to them this homage, we are not to forget that the Scrips 
tures solemnly admonish us of the graceless character of 
those who, while they have the form of godliness, deny 
its power. It is a remarkable fact in the moral history of 
men, that the religious propensity y so deeply imbedded in 
the natural conscience, satisfies and even exhausts itsfelf 
in the religion of forms. If we look to the religious rites 
and ceremonies, either of ancient or modern Paganism, 
what else do we discover except a merely formal religion 1 
If we advert to the more corrupt periods of the Jewish 
Church, we find all traces of spirituality lost and buried 
in outward observances, and to such an extent, that while 
that people corrupted the institutions that were of divine 
appointment, they added to those corruptions nat a few 
that were merely human. So, if we look back upon the 
history of the Christian Church, and mark those periods 
10* 



226 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

when the life-giving spirit of Christianity had fled ; or if 
we look over the face of Christendom as it exists in the 
age in which we live, and inspect those portions of the 
nominal church where the true faith and the true charity- 
are struggling for existence, if they have not actually 
expired ; we find them distinguished for nothing so much 
as their attachment to the forms of religion, corrupted 
indeed, and multiplied by the ingenuity, superstition and 
avarice of men, but still a religion of forms. There is 
everything that is specious outwardly, while within it is 
full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. The Cross 
and the altar are there ; but the religion of the Cross and 
the sacrifice which God has required are wanting. They 
are the signs, without the thing signified ; the body with- 
out the soul ; the language, without the thoughts and 
emotions, of piety. The form holds the place of the 
reality; and while the eye is fixed, and the knee bows, 
and the lips move, and the hand makes the significant 
emblem of the Cross, the mind and heart are without 
God in the world. The same spirit of formality, it is to 
be feared, is found in not a few who profess a purer faith. 
It were well if, among ourselves, there were no occasion 
for contrasting the religion of the Cross with this system 
of *cold and empty formalism. Alas ! how many are to 
be found in every Christian community, who are punc- 
tual in all the outward services of the sanctuary, who 
listen to the instructions of God's ministers, and assume the 
attitude of prayer, and with their lips celebrate the praise 
of the Most High, and partake of the memorials of his 
body and blood who was lifted up from the earth ; whoso 
minds are employed elsewhere, whose thoughts wander 
to the ends of the earth, and whose hearts are not recon 
ciled to God through the blood of his Son! There will 
probably always be such formalists in the world until the 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 227 

day when the glory of the Lord shall fill the earth as the 
waters do the sea. Even wicked men will have a reli- 
gion of forms, wherever their consciences are not so 
obdurate as to be satisfied with infidelity. It is a fashion- 
able and fascinating religion, and will not want advocates. 
It is for the most part the court religion ; and men who 
cannot make up their minds, for the love of God, to re- 
nounce the pride of life, will be found among its disciples. 
But it is not more true that the religion of the Cross is a 
religion of principle, than that it is a spiritual religion in 
opposition to the religion of forms. There is no one 
error against which the Bible arrays all its doctrines, all 
its precepts, all its penalties, all its promises, all its de- 
scriptions of character, all its views of God and of the 
way of salvation by his Son, with greater uniformity and 
power, than against a merely formal religion. It requires 
the heart in everything ; it tells us that the great Being 
with whom we have to do *' seeth not as man seeth ;" 
it instructs us that '' man looketh on the outward appear- 
ance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." It admonishes 
us, that 'Uhere are many things highly esteemed among 
men that are abomination in the sight of God." It de- 
cides the character by the state of the heart, and assigns 
to every action of a man's life precisely the moral quali- 
ties with those of the heart from which they flow. It 
utters that great and memorable fact, '' God is a spirit, 

AND THEY THAT WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT 

AND IN TRUTH." It dcscribes the agency and intimates 
the process by which a man, by nature "dead in tres- 
passes and sins," becomes a child of God and a disciple 
of Jesus Christ. That men may be under no misappre- 
hension as to the spirituality of religion, it is careful to 
inform us when, and where, and how it begins, and by 
wkat means and influences it is sustained. It speaks of 



228 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

the '^ renewing of the Holy Ghost" as a very different 
thing from the " washing with water ;" of the reforma- 
tion of the outward conduct as a very different thing from 
internal holiness ; of a knowledge of Christianity as a 
very different thing from its heaven-imparted virtues ; of 
a name to live as a very different thing from the life 
of God in the soul ; and of membership of the church on 
earth as a very different thing from membership of the 
church in heaven. It describes the inward conviction of 
sin, the self-loathing, the self-despair, the penitence, the 
confidence in Clnist, the love, the peace, the submission, 
the joy, the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, 
and the delight in duty, which are the unfailing character- 
istics of every follower of the Lamb. The men of the 
world can understand the mere formalism of religion : of 
its spirituality they know nothing. They may often 
commend and extol a formal religion, while they are 
scandalized by that which is spiritual. A spiritual religion 
is a religion which has its seat in the heart, and of which 
the Spirit of God is the author. The motives for it are 
not in the praise of men, nor in a conscience sootlied by 
flatteries or opiates, nor in any considerations that are 
earthly; but in the character and command of God, in 
the love of Jesus Christ, in the pleasures of obedience, 
and in the cheering hopes of a holy and blessed eternity. 
It is the thinking spirit communing with God ; the anx- 
ious and affectionate heart gratifying its affections by 
concentrating them on God ; the soul, everywhere else, 
distrustful, trusting in God ; the rebellious w^ill brought 
to be obedient to God ; the cheerless, uncomforted being 
ruined by sin, restored, and no longer uncomforted and 
cheerless, because it has learned to say, " Return to thy 
rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully Avith 
thee!" This is as it should be. This is giving God more 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 229 

than mere external homage and reverence ; more than the 
thoughts, more than the profession of attachment : it is 
giving him the warm affections, and the supreme attach- 
ment of the heart. It is the restoration of the soul to its 
complacency in God ; it is the thirsty spirit drinking at 
the fountain of living waters ; it is the fellowship of the 
created with the uncreated mind ; it is apostate and 
ruined man restored through Jesus Christ to the eternal 
source of life and joy. 

Another characteristic of the religion of the Cross is, 
that it is a self-denying and not a selfish and self-indulgent 
religion. One of the cardinal graces of Christianity is 
the spirit of self-denial. " If any man will come after 
me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and fol- 
low me." None but a Christian evfer exercises this 
spirit ; nor did any man ever become a Chistian on 
lower, or easier, or other terms than these. It is easy to 
understand what is meant by a selfish religion. It is a 
religion that springs from selfishness. It is built on the 
theory that men always act from selfish, and interested, 
and mercenary motives, and cannot act from any higher 
or better principle. It is a theory which teaches that 
every man ought to love himself and his own interests 
supremely, and that it is impossible to love either God 
or man from any other motive. There is, no doubt, not 
a little of such religion in the world. Those there are 
who are exceedingly devout, and greatly religious, so long 
as it is for their interest to be so. Their religion is one 
which terminates in self. It does not terminate in truth 
and duty for truth and duty's sake. It consists in loving 
and serving themselves, and in loving and serving God 
and their fellow-men, merely because they love and serve 
them. Nor is there any difficulty, on the other hand, 
in understanding what is meant by a self-denying religion. 



230 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

It is a religion which springs from self-denying motives ; 
which gives God a higher place in the heart than self; 
which dethrones the idol self, and sets up God in its place. 
It is a religion which is governed hy a supreme regard to 
truth and duty ; and which disposes its possessor to give 
up his own interest, and cheerfully deny himself, for the 
cause of God and the good of his fellow-men. It stands 
opposed to all the selfish and mercenary affections, and, 
just so far as it prevails, eradicates them. And the re- 
ligion of the Cross is a self-denying, and not a selfish 
religion. It has nothing in it that is mean and sordid, 
but everything that is generous. It has the magnanimity 
to make sacrifices, to which a pure and linregenerated 
egotism is a stranger. It possesses a greatness and noble- 
ness of character* that are superior to the aims of a sordid 
mind, and that never fail, where they are exhibited, to 
secure the approbation even of the men of the world. A 
selfish religion is an unreasonable religion, because it sets 
the less above the greater, and exalts the finite above the 
infinite ; while a self-denying religion commends itself to 
reason and conscience, because it sets the greater above 
the less, and exalts the infinite above the finite. The 
Scriptures portray this characteristic of the religion of the 
Cross in strong colors. They describe the self-denying 
character of the Saviour, who, " though he was rich, for 
our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, 
might be rich;" and then they bid us remember that 
'* if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of 
his." They issue the injunction, '' Love your enemies ; 
bless them that curse you ; do good to them that hate 
you ; and pray for them which despitefully use you and 
persecute you." They speak of the love of Christ con- 
straining his followers " to live not unto themselves, but 
unto him who died for them and rose again." When 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 231 

they lift the veil of the future, and tell us of those last 
days when "perilous times shall come," they trace 
these coming declensions and corruptions to the glaring 
fact that " men shall be lovers of their own selves." Men 
have no more of true, than they have of a self-denying 
religion. " Doth Job fear God for naught ? Hast thou 
not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and 
about all that he hath on every side 1 Thou hast blessed 
the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in 
the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all 
that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." This 
was a blow at the root of Job's religion. But God con- 
descended to the artful objector, and put the character of 
his servant to the test. Nor did he fail to remind the 
adversary of the result. " Still he holdeth fast his in- 
tegrity, although thou movest me against him, to destroy 
him without cause." There is nothing in which that 
moral change^ of which all true Christians are the subject, 
is more obvious than in this spirit of self-denial. One of 
the mournful consequences of human apostacy is, that 
when man once disobeyed his Maker he became a 
supremely selfish being. From one abyss of wretched- 
ness, he fell into another ; till he usurped the rights of 
the Godhead, and substituted self in the place of the Deity. 
He made himself his God ; and to this idol he erected his 
altars, and on these altars offered his every sacrifice. The 
religion of the Cross consists in the voluntary restoration 
of these rights of the Deity, of which he has been so un- 
righteously despoiled by this sacrilegious usurpation. It 
is produced by that moral revolution of the soul in which 
self is dethroned, and the crown restored to Him whose 
is the power, and the kingdom, and the glory forever. In 
all questions of duty, the law of God is the rule of every 
regenerated man ; in all his allotment, for weal or 



232 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

woe, the will of God is hiswill ; and in the great matter 
of his salvation, he cheerfully acquiesces in the humbling 
method of mercy through his Son. His spirit of self-con- 
fidence is gone, and he is like a little child. He considers 
himself as of low account, and seeks nothing so much 
as to live and die to the honor and glory of his Saviour. 
He expects obstacles, and is prepared to meet them ; he 
looks for trials, and is willing to encounter them ; he 
lays his account for reproaches and enemies, and does 
not expect to enter into his rest without a conflict. The 
Cross is the emblem of peace, but it is also the emblem 
of ignominy and suffering : it was so to the Saviour — it is 
so to his followers ; nor do they refuse any of its forms 
of reproach and suffering, but willingly endure them for 
the name of Christ. Men who have so little piety that 
they have no cross to bear, may well suspect the vigor 
and consistency, if not the genuineness, of their religion. 
The offence of the Cross has not ceased, nor has the time 
come when a self-denying spirit does not belong to the 
catalogue of Christian graces. True religion is a standing 
reproach to a world that lieth in wickedness ; and the 
Christian that will not deny his Master at any price will 
often be called to deny himself. All those religious affec- 
tions that cannot sympathize with a self-denying spirit 
are spurious and false, though they rise ever so high, and 
produce ever so great effects. We cannot determine the 
character of our piety any other way than by ascertaining 
its motives. Ardent affections, rapturous joys, and glow- 
ing zeal, are nothing without that '' charity which seeketh 
not her own." 

The religion of the Cross also possesses another very 
obvious characteristic, in that it has a heaven-ward and 
not an earthly tendency. The spirit of the Cross and the 
spirit of the world, in their appropriate influences, form 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 233 

two distinct characters ; so distinct, indeed, that they form 
two different communities, each having its peculiar laws, 
principles and subjects. These communities ever have 
been regarded as separate societies, and in the Word of 
God are called by different names. They are the world, 
and the church, or that community which has been called 
out from the world. They are both found everywhere 
in Christian lands ; in every condition of human life ; 
among the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the 
learned and the unlearned ; amid the noise and bustle of 
business, and amid the quietude and stillness of the more 
retired occupations. Every man belongs to one of these 
two communities ; he is a citizen of one of these two 
countries; he is influenced mainly and habitually, either 
by the spirit of Jesus Christ, or the spirit of the world. 
He must belong to one or the other, and it is impossible 
he should belong to both. " No man can serve two 
masters ; for he will either love the one and hate the 
other, or else he will cleave to the one and despise the 
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." It is easy 
for men to deceive themselves by false appearances. 
They mingle together in the same general community ; 
they enjoy the same religious privileges, and are em- 
ployed for the most part in the same outward duties ; they 
have the same individual and social necessities ; but 
there is a spirit, a moral tendency of mind, which dis- 
tinguishes them. Now we assert for the religion of the 
Cross, a heaven-ward in opposition to an earth- ward 
tendency, and claim for its disciples a heavenly in op- 
position to an earthly mind ; because the Scriptures 
explicitly teach us, that ^' they that are after the Spirit, 
do mind the things of the Spirit." 

We do not say, that there can be no true religion 
where there is not a perfect religion ; nor thai the true 



234 THE RELIGIOM OF THE CROSS. 

disciples of Christ maintain an invariable tendency to- 
ward heaven ; for, if we did, we should claim for them, 
what no mere man ever possessed, the religion of angels 
and of heaven. There is much base alloy in their purest 
gold, and much that is earthly mingled with the heav- 
enly. But while this is true, there is a general bent and 
turn of mind toward heavenly things which indicate 
their spiritual character. Their general temper and dis- 
position, their habits of thought and feeling, when not 
diverted by circumstances or occasions which give an- 
other direction to them, flow in a channel that con- 
ducts them beyond the things of time and sense. God 
and eternity are themes which are not absent, for any 
long period, from their thoughts. It is not in their hearts 
to say, '' Depart from us, for we desire not the know- 
ledge of thy ways ;" but the rather to say, with the 
Psalmist, '' As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
so panteth my soul after thee, O God !" They cannot 
live ^^ without God in the world," nor without frequent 
communion with him, nor without habitual devotedness 
to him. While other men are occupied only about the 
things that are on the earth, they, though not negligent 
of secular duties, are habitually conversant with the 
things that are above, where Jesus Christ sitteth at the 
right hand of God. This is the spirit which is given to 
them of God. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; 
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The whole 
complexion of their moral nature is changed ; they are 
the subjects of new desires and new sensibilities, and live 
and act as in a new world. ^^ As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he." The prevailing character and com- 
plexion of their thoughts and affections, called oflf as they 
frequently are, and must be, to the pursuits of time, is 
more congenial to pursuits that have a higher aim and 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 235 

object. The intervals of exemption from worldly care 
are hailed wath pleasure and thankfulness, and made 
welcome by the more hallowed and endearing asso- 
ciations of piety. They love them ; they seek them ; and 
when they cannot enjoy them, their harps are hung 
upon the willows. It is not complaint that you hear 
from their lips when they -are deprived of scenes of 
worldly amusement and dissipation, but when they are 
shut out from the scenes, and associations, and engage- 
ments where they hope to realize the presence of God, 
and have their hearts affected by fresh discoveries of 
his mercy, and enlarged and expanded by impressions 
his truth. Here are their pleasures ; these the bright 
spots in their wilderness ; and these the scenes on which 
the Sun of Righteousness sheds his beams, and the dew 
of heaven sheds its sacred fragrance. The Word of God 
supplies them with their treasures of wisdom ; and 
prayer^ and the Sabbath, and the sanctuary, and the fel- 
lowship of the saints, constitute their relief from worldly 
perplexity, their consolation in trial, and their '' exceed- 
ing joy." Their prospects are dark, clouds settle upon 
their path, and invisible foes beset them, if they feel 
their course toward heaven obstructed. Strangers and 
pilgrims on the earth, they are traveling toward '^ the 
rest that remaineth for the people of God," and are ex- 
pectants of that world where ^' the Lamb in the midst of 
the throne shall lead them unto living fountains of 
water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes." Their chief concern is not with earthly, but 
with heavenly things. God and heaven awaken their 
best affections and most ardent desires. They are alive 
to the interests of heaven and eternity, and are often 
heard to say, " What shall it profit a man to gain the 



236 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

whole world, and lose his own soul V^ This is the 
religion of the Cross. 

Another characteristic of the religion of the Cross is, 
that it is a practical religion, in opposition to the abstrac- 
tions of theory. It is a religion which, from its nature, 
expresses itself, and is carried out into all the associations 
and business of human life. In this respect, it differs 
from all other religions. Other religions cannot be acted 
out without exposing their weakness and wickedness ; 
and the more they are acted out, the worse they appear. 
Paganism, Mohammedanism, and all the corrupt and false 
systems of Christianity, weak as they are, are more 
wicked ; and false as they are in theory, nevertheless ap- 
pear best in theory ; while both the theory and practice 
of true religion are alike amiable and lovely. Follow 
out the principles of the Cross into any or all the social 
relations, and into any or all the departments of human 
labor and professional calling, and you will see that they 
make good rulers and good subjects, good husbands and 
good wives, good parents and good children, good 
judges and good lawyers, good physicians, good mer- 
chants, good agriculturists, good authors, good mechanics, 
good laborers, and good men. It is the beauty and glory 
of the religion of the Cross, that it may safely exhibit 
itself everywhere ; and the more it is exhibited, the more 
does it exemplify the truth and honesty, the purity and 
decency, the temperance and honor, the peacefulness and 
meekness, the love and beneficence, the firmness and 
perseverance in well-doing, which secure the homage 
even of a world that lieth in wickedness. It is not con- 
fined to the closet, and the sanctuary, and the cloister ; 
but goes forth into the world, mingles with its society, 
and inweaves itself in all the arrangements and details 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 237 

of its business. Nor does it detach itself from any of the 
scenes of its innocent relaxation, but breathes into them 
all its own spirit, and withdraws itself from nothing where 
the fear of God and the love of Jesus Christ may act 
themselves out with unembarrassed freedom. If there is 
anything that stops the mouths of gainsayers, and con- 
vinces the world that the religion of the Cross is a divine 
reality, it is its practical character. It is an easy thing 
to declaim against the world ; to proscribe all connection 
with its pursuits, and objects, and enjoyments ; to abjure 
it, to treat it as the accursed thing, and to immure one's 
self in the solitude of some religious order, under the pre- 
tence of superior sanctity. . But all this is worse than 
error. Religion has a part to act in the world. Her light 
must shine there, and there her salt must preserve its 
savor. She has an influence to exert which cannot be 
exerted without maintaining intercourse with the world ; 
and she not only does it without the sacrifice of principle, 
but in obedience to principle ; and where she neglects to do 
it, it is because she loses sight of one of the main objects 
of her vocation . The principles of the Gospel are in nothing 
at war with the obvious principles of God's providence. 
God has made Christian men to be inhabitants of this 
world, and it is a morbid and sinful state of mind that in- 
duces them to retire from it. If there is any man in the 
world who is qualified to enjoy the charms of domestic and 
social intercourse, it is the Christian. He sustains the rela- 
tion to God and man, to time and eternity, which fits him 
for both worlds ; and where he appreciates that relation, 
and renders it subservient to the Cross of his Master, he will 
bring both worlds more frequently and nearer together, 
and carry with him into this world the claims of the 
world to come. His relations to the world around him 
form one of the most interesting spheres of Christian duty. 



238 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

Religion would be a very easy matter, if we had nothing 
to do but withdraw from the pursuits and society of the 
world. There would be little conflict then, and as little 
triumph. It is not unfrequently in the very heart of the 
Avorld, and amid all its conflicting claims, and noise, and 
dust, and folly, that Christian vigilance and circumspec- 
tion shine out, and that the followers of Jesus read les- 
sons to the men of the world, which teach them that 
'' the friendship of the world is enmity with God." They 
may live in the world, and yet live above the world. 
With the exception of those instances where the provi- 
dence of God renders this unseemly or impossible, it is 
only then that they live to good purpose. True religion, 
like its Author, '' goes about doing good." It restricts 
not itself to any particular class of human societ}^, but 
extends itself to all classes. It is like the Cross, the re- 
ligion of love — love to man, as well as love to God. By 
whoever else they may be disregarded, the woes of men 
have an advocate in the bosom of Christian compassion. 
It dwells among men ; it instructs, comforts, and blesses. 
Where they cannot ascend to it, it descends to them. So 
far from erecting a wall of separation between itself and 
the benighted, the sinning, the suflfering, it searches them 
out, and watches its opportunities of doing them good. 
Scenes of usefulness draw Christians forth from their re- 
tirement, nor do obstacles hinder them in their career of 
mercy. It would be only a just characteristic of Chris- 
tianity, if doing good constitutes the soul of all they say 
and do. Though the best examples of it are blended 
with many and mournful imperfections, yet this is its 
tendency, this its character. It is not a mere theory, a 
fiction of the mind, but something which is embodied, 
and realized in an actual and active existence. It con 
stitutes one of the attractions of the Cross itself, because 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 239 

it is the living spirit of the Cross, and a practical and per- 
suasive exemplification of its power. The highest glory 
of Christianity is its practical influence. This is its na- 
ture, and it is to this glory that it elevates the nature of 
man. This is Christianity in opposition to all false re- 
ligions. Selfishness, expediency, and fine philosophic 
theories, will make men just, and perhaps honorable and 
moral, while nothing but true benignity, active benevo- 
lence, makes them Christians. In no other way do 
Christians live to good purpose. It is only thus that the 
religion of the Cross will ever have its proper place in 
human society, and become the master-wheel in the 
great machinery of human life, setting a thousand other 
wheels in motion, and governing the whole. 

Another characteristic of the religion of the Cross is, 
it is full of Christ. Christ is associated with all its 
duties and all its hopes. Christ is its centre. Christ is 
its living Head, and it lives not, any more than an am- 
putated limb, when severed from Christ. Only as its 
roots strike downward, and clasp this Tree of Life, does 
it bear fruit. " If any man be in Christy he is a new 
creature." The Christian is nothing, has nothing, 
can do nothing, without Christ. It is a bastard Chris- 
tianity that owns not Christ as its parent. It is an igno- 
rant Christianity that looks not to Christ as its Teacher, 
and that follows not his teaching. It is an unpardoned 
Christianity that looks not to Christ as its Priest. It is 
an impure Christianity that is not washed in the blood 
of the Lamb. It is a disloyal Christianity that does not 
recognize Jesus Christ as its King, and that hesitates to 
obey where he commands. It is a wayward Christianity 
that looks not to Christ as its example, and that does not 
follow where he leads the way. The knowledge of tlie 
Christian is the *' knowledge of Christ." The love of 



240 THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 

the Christian is " the love of Christ.'' All his graces 
find their element at the Cross. Christ crucified is his 
glory and joy. Christ in his uncreated glory — Christ in 
his humanity — Christ in his obedience and temptations — 
Christ in his death and resurrection — Christ in his king- 
dom and on his throne — Christ in his weakness and his 
power, in his reproach and in his honor, in his past history 
and his coming triumphs — is the mighty magnet that 
attracts his heart, that moves and fixes it, that fills it 
with grateful astonishment and devotion. Christ, in the 
word and ordinances, is meat indeed to him when he is 
hungry, and when he is thirsty it is drink. In the storm 
and tempest, Christ is his hiding-place ; in the parched 
desert, he is as rivers of water ; under the noon-day sun, 
he is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 
Christ near him is his consolation in sorrow, in joy his 
triumph. Christ in him is the hope of glory. He seeks 
supplies only from the fullness of Christ. In death 
Christ is his life, and his resurrection in the grave. When 
he stands in the judgment, Christ is his Judge ; and 
through interminable ages Christ is his heaven. The 
religion of. the Cross is full of Christ ; and this renders it 
so peaceful and so happy a religion, and imparts to it, 
not indeed the paroxysms of ecstacy, but *^ the peace of 
God that passeth all understanding." It begins and takes 
root in the soul, not until it has first felt the burden of 
sin and a sense of its condemnation ; not until it has 
learned to cry for mercy at the foot of the throne ; and 
not until it has found relief in believing in the Son of 
God, and receiving him as all its salvation and all its 
desire. Then its peace is as a river, and its joys as the 
waves of the sea. It is the counterpart of heaven. It 
is the cup of joy from the river of life, which, clear as 
crystal, flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. 



THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS. 241 

Allow me affectionately to ask, Do yon possess this re- 
ligion of the Cross ? You may not be a favorite with the 
world if you do ; but what is unutterably more, you are 
the friend of God. This religion comes to you as a suf- 
fering, perishing creature, and would make you happy 
by making you holy. Make the trial of everything else 
if you will, but there is a voice within your own bosoms 
that dispels the delusion. And I hear your own response 
to it : No, I cannot be happy, without the religion of the 
Cross ! I may well afford to forego anything, everything, 
rather than the religion of the Cross ! 



11 



CHAPTER XIV . 

THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 

The eternal state of men is decided by their character. 
The Scriptures teach us, that in the day of judgment 
God '' will render to every man according to his deeds : 
to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, 
seek for glory, and honor, and immortaliy, eternal life ;" 
while to them ''that are contentious, and do not obey 
the truth, but obey unrighteousness," he will render 
'' indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish." Every 
good man will then receive the rewards of heaven, and 
every wicked man will be condemned to the pains of 
hell. '' The hour is coming in the which all that are in 
their graves shall hear his voice ; they that have done 
good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done 
evil to the resurrection of damnation." With the excep- 
tion of those who die in infancy, therefore, all have the 
opportunity of forming the character by which their eter- 
nal state is to be determined. Nor is there anything tha ; 
exerts so powerful an influence in forming the characters 
of men as the Cross of Christ. To some, it is the savor 
of life unto life ; to others, the savor of death unto death. 
To some, the Saviour is the object of interest, of love, of 
confidence, and of glorying ; to others, he is the object 
of indifference, and then of hostility, of distrust, and they 
turn away their faces from him for very shame. '' The 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 243 

preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness, 
but unto them which are saved it is the wisdom of God, 
and the power of God." The Cross is the great test of 
character. This is a very plain truth, and needs illus- 
tration rather than proof. 

I begin this illustration by remarking, that the Cross 
presents a vivid manifestation of those excellences of the 
divine character to which all wicked men are hostile^ and 
in which all good men have high complacency. We have 
already contemplated the truth that the *' glory of God 
shines in the face of Jesus Christ." All the perfections 
of the divine nature there appear in the greatest fullness, 
richness and splendor, in which they ever have been, or 
ever will be, revealed to men. No principle in the moral 
constitution of men is more obvious, than that those 
objects which they most hate are most hated when most 
clearly seen ; and those which they love, when most 
clearly seen are loved the most. Wicked men there are 
who are slow to believe that they are the enemies of God, 
because they have not deep impressions of his being, nor 
just conceptions of his character ; nor do they always 
admit the thought, that he is so holy that he cannot look 
on sin, and so just that he will by no means clear the 
guilty. And good men there are who doubt their love to 
him, because they do not always enjoy the light of his 
countenance, nor behold his beauty as they have some- 
times seen it. The Cross brings God near to both. 
Wicked men may see the low estimation in which they 
hold the God of heaven, by the contempt with which 
they regard the method of salvation by his Son ; and 
good men may discover the high esteem they cherish for 
him, by the high regard they pay to him, when, in the 
person of his Son, they discover him to be glorious in 
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Very few 



244 THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 

men in the world look upon themselves as such enemies 
of God as to refuse to be reconciled to him on any terms ; 
nor is it until they discover their hostility to the terms of 
mercy proposed in the Gospel, that they have a practical 
demonstration that their enmity is vigorous and unrelent- 
ing. Very many good men know not how much they 
love Godj until they enjoy those refreshing and repeated 
views of his loveliness which are so often imparted to 
them as they gather round the Cross. Wicked men, who 
enjoy the faithful preaching of the Gospel, have a fair 
trial of what is in their hearts ; for the Cross is continu- 
ally disturbing them, and sometimes excites their enmity 
almost to infuriateness. They are often led to see, when 
contemplating the truths of the Cross, that they not only 
have not the love of God in them, but cherish a deeply- 
rooted aversion to his character, and give way to blas- 
phemous thoughts, if not to thoughts of malice, against 
the Holy One of Israel. They have no desire to exalt 
God, or to see him exalted. The principal reason why 
they do not fall in with the method of mercy by the 
Cross is, that it brings glory to God in the highest. 
While good men, on the other hand, have the same trial 
of their hearts, by the same Gospel ; and it brings out 
and shows their love, their delight in God, their gratified 
and grateful love. The Cross does not repel their hearts, 
but attracts them — attracts them to God their supreme 
good and joy ; and if there is a thought that gives more 
value to the Cross than any other, it is that it secures the 
highest glory to God, while it announces peace on earth 
and good-will to men. The only reason why wicked 
men continue to reject the Cross is, that they are enemies 
10 God ; and it is because good men are his friends that 
they accept it. There is no surer test of character, and 
no greater proof that a man is the enemy of God, than 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 245 

that he is a despiser of the Cross ; and there is no greater 
proof than attachment to the Cross, of honest and su- 
preme attachment to the God of heaven. 

There is another fact in relation to the Cross, which 
shows that it is a test of character. It establishes claims 
which wicked men are not disposed to admit, and in which 
good men cheerfully acquiesce. One great object of the 
death of Christ was to enforce the claims of the divine 
law and government, and give its sanction to the divine 
authority over the consciences of men. Not one princi- 
ple of the divine government is yielded by this method of 
salvation, but every principle of it vindicated and mag- 
nified. It is no compromise between the Lawgiver and 
his rebellious subjects, but a method of mercy in which 
the majesty of the law is protected, and emphasis and 
efficacy given to the immutable authority of the great 
Creator and Governor of men. This is one reason why 
wicked men are not pleased, and why good men are 
pleased, with the Cross of Christ. It proclaims to them 
that God is their owner ; and it is a claim which the 
wicked resist, and in which the righteous rejoice. It 
proclaims to them that he is their Lawgiver, and requires 
their constant obedience and their whole hearts; and 
while the wicked complain of these requisitions, the 
righteous regard them as holy, just and good. The 
wicked are restive under this omnipotent authority, but 
the righteous submit to it. The wicked try all in their 
power to break loose from God, and to throw off the hal- 
lowed influence of the Cross ; while the righteous press 
these obligations to their bosoms, and feel inwardly 
thankful that there is a power in the Cross to bow their 
wills to the Supreme Governor. The language of the 
wicked, in view of the Cross, is, ^' Depart from us, for 
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways :" the language 



246 THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 

of the righteous is, '' It is good for me to draw nigh unto 
God-" The language of the wicked is, " Who is the 
the Lord, that I should obey his voice ?" the language 
of the righteous is, "I will delight myself in thy statutes, 
I will not forget thy word." The language of the wicked 
is, " We will not have this man to reign over us :" the 
language of the righteous is, '' The Lord reigneth, let 
the earth rejoice !" Wicked men indulge the pride of 
human intellect, and the still more inflated pride of the 
human heart, in reasoning against the claims of the Cross : 
they even boldly affirm, that such is their dependence 
on God, that they are not under obligations to become 
Christians, and if they never become so the fault will 
not be theirs ; while, on the other hand, good men adore 
that sovereign grace that ''makes them willing in the 
day of his power," and more and more, as long as they 
live, wonder why this great salvation is thus revealed 
unto babes, while it is hidden from the wise and prudent. 
Wicked men practically treat the claims of the Cross on 
their faith and obedience very differently from the way 
in which they are treated by good men : the more 
elearly, the more tenderly, and the more urgently they 
are enforced, the greater rigor and point do they give to 
their resistance ; while the conduct of good men shows, 
that the more clearly tlie^ are taught these claims, and 
the more powerfully they are enforced, the more do they 
honor them. The truths of the Cross, and its wonderful 
mercy, and its consequent authority, were designed to 
bring the great subject of controversy between God and 
men within a narrow compass, and to an obvious issue ; 
and those who do not fall in with them, fall out with 
them with all their hearts. The Cross is a standing me- 
morial to the universe, that God is right, and that men 
are wrong ; and therefore the righteous are its friends. 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 347 

and the wicked are its enemies. It decides the question 
in favor of truth and righteousness ; and hence, the friends 
of truth, of righteousness, range themselves on the side 
of it, while against it are ranged the enemies of hoth. 
There is no difficulty, even by the lights of nature, and 
reason, and conscience, in seeing that, in their contest for 
supremacy, God is right and the sinner is wrong ; much 
less is there any difficulty in seeing this, under the 
stronger lights of Gospel truth and mercy. Here all the 
obscurity thrown around the question, by the pride and 
obduracy of the human heart, is dissipated. Every man 
that looks intelligently at the Cross of Christ, must see 
that the claims of the God of heaven are just such as they 
ought to be; just such as all men ought cordially and 
cheerfully to acknowledge ; and just such, that the cor- 
dial and practical recognition of them decides their char- 
acter. It is not easy for them to have just views of their 
own character, until they see for themselves how they 
treat the Cross of Christ. Here the " thoughts of many 
hearts are revealed," and the child that was born proves 
" the falling and the rising again of many." The chil- 
dren of God always most clearly discover their filial and 
obedient spirit when nearest the Cross ; and bad men, if 
once awakened from their indifference and stupidity, and 
brought near the Cross, will be at no loss to see that they 
have a spirit within them that is not subject to the Sove- 
reign of the universe . Here the obligations to piety come 
down upon them with such force, that if they are resisted, 
the evidence is painfully convincing, overwhelming to 
solicitude and distress, that they are without God in the 
world. 

Another fact which shows that the Cross is a test of 
character is, that it implies allegations of sinfulness and 
ill-desert which the wicked deny, but which the righteous 



248 THE CROSS THE TEST OF OHAKACTER. 

humbly acknowledge. The Cross speaks a language m 
relation to the sinfulness and ill-desert of men which can- 
not be misunderstood. '^ If one died for all, then were 
all dead." '' If these things be done in the green tree, 
what shall be done in the dry?" The doctrine of sal- 
vation by the Cross, is the doctrine of ruin by sin. We 
find the only cause of the Cross in the hopeless state of 
man without it. That mighty movement in the govern- 
ment of God is the highest proof that man Avas sunk so 
low in guilt and perditon, that no finite remedy was 
adequate to his deliverance. The greatness and malignity 
of the disease are discoverable in the divinity and wonder- 
ful method of the cure. When we see the Eternal Son 
of God smitten by the sword of justice, and in the room 
and place of man, we no longer doubt that man is vile, 
and that he deserves that wrath of God, which, if endured 
in his own person, would sink him to perdition. This is 
the reason why wicked men are so unwilling to look at 
the Cross, and why good men desire, with angels, to look 
into the combined mysteries of its justice and its grace. 
This is the reason wicked men deny a divine Saviour 
and a divine atonement, and comfort themselves with the 
thought, that inasmuch as their Saviour is human and 
his death has none of the properties of an expiatory 
sacrifice, their sins are neither many nor great, and deserve 
no such punishment as the eternal curse of a violated law. 
It is a just conclusion from false premises, and only shows 
how repulsive a lesson the Cross reads to a mind that 
does not submit to the humbling conviction of its own 
sinfulness and ill-desert. Good men have been taught to 
feel that they have broken the law of God, impugned 
the rights of his holy government, despised his authority, 
and ruined their own souls. They are willing to feel 
the force of this conviction, and desire to feel it more and 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 249 

more deeply. Wicked men are not willing to submit to 
it, but resist it as long as they can resist it. Good men 
look on sin as no trifle ; they have no excuse for it, and 
make no palliation. Bad men look upon it in a very dif- 
ferent light, and excuse and palliate it as a small affair. 
Good men are sensible that they deserve to suffer all that 
God threatens — that they '' have done things worthy of 
death" — and prostrate themselves at the footstool of 
sovereign grace reigning through righteousness by our 
Lord Jesus Christ ; while wicked men reject that grace, 
because they are not convinced of their ill-desert, and 
do not feel that the sentence of condemnation gone out 
against them is right and just. Good men feel that 
there would be no cause of complaint against God, should 
he execute the penalty of his law ; wicked men com- 
plain that he is a hard master and a severe judge. Good 
men wonder how he can save ; wicked men do not see 
why he should destroy. Good men cherish the con- 
viction of their vileness and ill-desert; wicked men 
suppress and stifle them. Good men feel alarmed and 
suspicious of the state of their own minds, when they lose 
sight of their own sinfulness ; wicked men feel a load 
thrown off from their consciences, and live at ease and in 
security, when they can forget it. Good men feel 
ashamed and humbled before God, and the more so 
that " he is pacified towards them ;" while wicked men 
remain hardened in their pride. This is one reason why, 
these two different classes of men regard the Cross with 
widely different emotions. It discloses their true char- 
acter. It detects the deceptions of the wicked, and dis- 
covers the honesty of the righteous. The Cross is the 
bloody proof of human guilt, which can never be erased 
from the records of the universe, and which, wherever 
11* 



250 THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 

it is seen, and as long as it is remembered, enforces the 
truth that the sinner deserves to die. 

The Cross is also a test of character, inasmuch as it 
rejects the confidences on which wicked men rely^ and which 
good men have been taught to renounce. Wicked men 
often suffer under the struggles of natural conscience, and 
the convincing power of the Holy Spirit. They have 
some partial view of their sins and their danger, espe- 
cially in the contemplation of their overt and more gross 
transgressions. At such seasons they always have re- 
course to sources of confidence which the Cross condemns. 
They are very apt to compound with God, by proposing 
that their debts to his justice should be liquidated by 
paying a part of them. They are willing to give up one 
sin for the sake of indulging another ; or to pay a part 
of the debt themselves, and, for the balance, to draw 
upon the merits of Christ. Some concessions they are 
willing to make ; but God must come to some terms of 
agreement with them, and make some abatement from 
his original and rightful claims. They persuade them- 
selves that they are able to make some amends for their 
transgressions by works of righteousness which they have 
done, or purpose to perform, rather than, after all they 
have done, and the best they can do, come to the Cross 
just as they are, and accept the salvation of the Gospel 
as the chief of sinners. They think highly of their moral 
conduct and outward observance of the duties of religion, 
and at heart feel that they give them a sort of claim upon 
the divine mercy. They are offended with the Cross 
because it frowns upon all such sources of confidence, 
and requires them, however blameless their outward mo- 
rality, and however exact and punctilious their forms of 
religion, to renounce them all, and place all their confi- 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 251 

dence and hope in its own complete and entire redemption. 
They feel it to be a hardship that they may do nothing 
to merit salvation, or at least that they may not do some- 
thing to induce God to show them mercy. '' Being igno- 
rant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish 
their own righteousness, they refuse to submit themselves 
to God's righteousness," as revealed in the Gospel of his 
Son. They think to purchase what God freely gives, and 
by such fancied equivalents as are abomination in his sight, 
and which, even were they less abominable, were no 
equivalent at all. This is one of the ways of compound- 
ing with God, and of rejecting the Cross, which, while 
it has been reduced to a system by the Church of Rome, 
nevertheless finds a place in every natural heart. Men 
are all Romanists b}^ nature, because they are all by na- 
ture the enemies of the Cross of Christ. But this whole 
doctrine of human merit, whether found in the systems 
of Rome, or more covertly cherished in the bosom of the 
self-righteous Protestant, is altogether derogatory to the 
merit and sufficiency of the Saviour's satisfaction. It 
were strange to call that forgiveness, which men pro- 
cure, either in whole or in part, by their own merit ; or 
to ascribe all the glory to the Cross, when men them- 
seh^es " have whereof to glory." Just the opposite of 
all this, are the views and affections of the real Christian. 
He looks upon the work of Christ alone as furnishing the 
grounds and causes of his justification, and attributes the 
forgiveness of sins, and restoration to the divine favor and 
eternal life, exclusively to the meritorious obedience and 
atoning death of the Cross. A godly man, and one who 
is truly humble, and of a contrite heart, resorts to nothing 
else. He renounces every other confidence ; places his 
sole dependence upon Jesus Christ ; glories in him as 
the **Lord his righteousness ;" looks to him for the sup- 



252 THE CP^OSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 

ply of his every want ; and finds in his love and grace a 
stimulus to every duty, support under every trial, and 
the progressive mortification of in-dwelling sin. His con- 
science is pacified, and he has the inward sense of par- 
doning mercy, only from the blood of the Cross. Under 
the consciousness of his daily infirmities, his resource is 
the same with that to which he first repaired, as a peni- 
tent sinner, under the conviction of his awful and 
aggravated guilt. He has but this one hope, that Jesus 
Christ '' is able to save to the uttermost all that come 
unto God by him;" he has but this confidence, that 
" the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin ;" he 
has but this cleansing, that ^' he has washed his robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb ;" and he 
has but this song, '' Unto him that loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood — unto him be glory and 
dominion forever !" And thus the Cross puts to the 
test the characters of men, by rejecting the confidences on 
which the wicked rely, and which the righteous renounce ; 
and because, while it shows that there is a class of men 
who have fled for refuge to lay hold ^' of the hope set 
before them," who have renounced all dependence on 
their holier services, and yet have found ''joy and peace 
in believing," and " living by the faith of the Son of 
God," it at the same time not less certainly indicates a 
class of men who are thankless for this grace, who, by 
the unhallowed association of other confidences with that 
which rests only on this great sacrifice, are guilty of the 
sacrilegious impeachment of the merit and sufliciency 
of him who was crucified. 

Nor is the Cross less a test of character also, in that it 
reveals a happiness, which is very differently suited to the 
taste of men, as they themselves are holy or unholy. The 
characters of men are decided by those things, in the 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 253 

pursuit and enjoyment of which they find their highest 
happiness. There is a spiritual rehsh and taste in the 
heart of every good man, that finds its gratification in 
objects that God approves ; and there is a sinful relish 
and taste in the heart of every wicked man that finds its 
gratification in objects that God condemns. There is a 
natural taste, common both to the righteous and the 
wicked, which has no moral character, and by which they 
enjoy the beauty of natural objects, and are gratified in 
the contemplation of a finished composition, a splendid 
poem, an elegant garb, a polished demeanor, a fine 
painting, or an exquisite piece of music ; and there is a 
tnoj'al taste, which renders men sensible to the beauties 
of holiness, to the excellence of God's word, to the 
pleasures of religion, to the glory of the Cross, and to the 
blessedness of heaven. To some persons, these things 
have the strongest attractions, and in their view possess 
the greatest loveliness ; while to others, they have no at- 
tractions at all, and are viewed with indifference, if not 
with disgust. It is not a blind instinct for which neither 
of these classes of men can specify any sufiicient cause ; 
but consists in those moral principles and affections 
which, in a good man, are the result of renewing grace, 
and are cherished by the frequent contemplation of 
spiritual things, and which in a wicked man are the 
result of his native sinfulness, and are strengthend by his 
familiarity with things that are unspiritual and evil. 
Now the Cross is a sure and infallible test both of this 
spiritual and unspiritual character. It touches a string 
to which every holy heart vibrates, and to which every 
unholy one is discordant. It presents sources of happi- 
ness that are attractive to the former, and to the latter 
repulsive. The sources of happiness which the Cross 
reveals, are spiritual. They are the discovery of God 



254 THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 

and the enjoyment of God in everything — in his works, 
in his providence, and in his word. They are those ex- 
ercises of genuine piety themselves, which are the fruit 
of the Spirit. They are God's word and ordinances ; the 
praise, the prayer, the communion and fellowship which 
he has established in his church, and where his people 
sit at his feet and behold his glory. They are the duties 
which God requires, rendering ^'the ways of wisdom 
pleasantness and all her paths peace ;" neither burdening 
the conscience by inward remorse, nor dishonoring the 
character by the blush of shame. They are the high 
ambition of living to some good purpose in the world ; 
of living, not to self, but to him who died, and laboring 
to be accepted of him. They are in aiming at the high- 
est end at which a creature can aim — '' to glorify God 
and enjoy him forever." They are even in the very 
trials to which the Christian is ordained ; because they 
are for the trial of his faith, and that he may learn what 
and where is his stronghold in the day of trouble, and 
find by his own experience that " all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God, and are the called 
according to his purpose." They are in retrospect and 
in anticipation : in retrospect, as he looks back upon all 
the way in which the Lord has led him, and with every 
recollected step and incident, magnifying the grace and 
faithfulness of his Father who is in heaven ; and in an- 
ticipation, as he looks forward to victory over the foe, 
even to sin, death and the grave. They are the hopes 
and blessed assurances which the Cross imparts, of the 
hour when, through him who is the resurrection and the 
life, " death shall be swallowed up in victory," and he 
shall possess " salvation with eternal glory." They are 
the '^ life and immortality brought to light in the Gos- 
pel ;" the heaven where God dwells, where Jesus reigns, 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 255 

where all the holy tribes are assembled, where the in- 
habitant shall no more say, I am sick ; where sin shall 
never enter, and where all tears shall be wiped from every 
eye. Such is the blessedness which the Cross discloses, 
and of which every holy mind has a quick discernment, 
and delicacy and readiness of perception, a faculty of en- 
joyment, not only unknown to the unholy, but from 
which they instinctively revolt. They have no power 
of receiving" pleasure from such objects and pursuits. 
They scarcely excite their attention, for they have no 
disposition that is congenial with their nature. They 
cannot enter into them ; they are not suited to their taste. 
Their joys are elsewhere. They are not found at the 
Cross, but are crucified there, because there the '' world 
is crucified to them, and they to the world." 

Let the reader then try his own character, by bringing" 
it to the test of the Cross. " What think ye of Christ?" 
As you think of him, so you think of God ; so will your 
views of yourselves be in accordance with his word, or 
in opposition to it ; and so will you think and feel toward 
his kingdom in the world, and your own duty toward 
death and heaven. The Cross is the great test. God 
designed it to be so, and so it has proved in every age of 
the world. The nations that have received it have been 
favored of God, while those who have rejected it have 
perished from the way, though his wrath has "been 
kindled but a little." The individuals who have gloried 
in it now live and reign with their once crucified Lord, 
while those to whom it has been a rock of offence have 
stumbled over it into perdition. Capernaum perished 
for her rejection of Christ ; Chorazin and Bethsaida per- 
ished for their rejection of Christ. For many a long 
century, the Jews have been given over to blindness and 
perdition, for their rejection of Christ. Nor is there any 



256 THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 

difference between Jew and Greek ; for, be he Jew or 
Gentile, '' he that believeth not on the Son, shall not see 
life, but the wrath of God abideth in him.^' God sent 
his Son into the world, to try the characters of men. 
That Son of Mary has been set forth crucified, and his 
Cross has been lifted up before your eyes, in order to 
ascertain, and to g-ive you, and the world, and the uni- 
verse the opportunity of ascertaining, your true character. 
Nor may it be forgotten, that it is impossible for you to 
be indifferent to the Cross of Christ. No truth is more 
universal or more obvious than this, or more clearly 
taught throughout the Gospel, or that more certainly 
results from the whole system of its doctrines. The world 
is full of those who are not with Christ. They take no in- 
terest in the truths of the Gospel, nor in the great concerns 
of his kingdom. They can scarcely be said to know what 
they are, nor do they care to know. But this is something 
more than absolute indifference. Men are too much the 
creatures of feeling and sensibility, to regard such an object 
as the Cross with perfect apathy. Their character and 
interests are too much affected by it, for time and eternity, 
for them to contemplate it with an empty and barren neu- 
trality. What seems to be their indifference toward it, 
shows that it is a stumbling-block to their proud and selfish 
minds : though unavowedly, yet are they secretl)^ hostile to 
its claims. Refusing to love Jesus Christ, is something more 
than neutrality. It is disobedience ; it is rebellion. It 
may not be open war, but it contains all the seeds and 
principles of opposition and outrage. It is secret aliena- 
tion to the character of the blessed Saviour, to his doc- 
trines, his government and Gospel. Nor does it require 
much to awaken and call it into action. It is an equa- 
nimity that is easily disturbed, and changed to open 
hostility. Sooner or later, all such persons will be 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 257 

brought to feel that they can no longer shut themselves 
up in cold indifference and neutrality. They will be 
pressed to decide one way or the other ; and because they 
are not for the Cross, they will have reached the point 
where their neutrality terminates, and be found against it. 
Nor ought the opposite phase of this truth to be over- 
looked. '' He that is not against us," says that same 
Saviour, " is on our part." The Cross is not the stand- 
ard of a party, but of Christianity ; it is not the badge 
of the exclusive few, but of the whole regenerated and 
Christian world. I bless God, that however much 
men may differ in other things, if they do not fall out 
with the Cross^ they are Christians. The Cross has 
attractions powerful enough to draAV and bind good 
men together of every name. We may not condemn 
men who '' follow not us," so long as they follow the 
Cross. If they at heart believe in Christ, if they are 
doing his work, if they are fighting under his banner, 
and for the cause and truth of the Saviour, and the exten- 
sion of his kingdom in the world, they are most surely not 
his enemies. No department of Christ's kingdom is 
without its imperfections ; and if his professed followers are 
judged by these, that charity that '' hopeth all things " 
will have little scope for some of its most heaven-born 
exercises. Amid all the multitude of his professed 
followers, the Son of God would be found alone, if none 
were recognized as his disciples save those who are fault- 
less. God is more charitable than man, because he is 
more holy. The more of the true spirit of Christ we 
ourselves possess, the more cautious and reluctant shall 
we be to deny that spirit to others. We may have an 
honest conviction and decided preference for our own 
peculiarities, and so may others have the same conviction 
and preference for their peculiarities ; while both they and 



258 THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER,. 

we should rejoice more abundantly in those great pecu- 
liarities of the Gospel, that are common to all the follow- 
ers of the Lamb. I look with great solicitude on the 
spiritual condition of those who feel at liberty to set 
themselves up as a perfect and complete model to all 
other churches, and who can allow themselves to say, 
or even to feel, that there is no such thing as belonging 
to Jesus Christ out of their own communion. I know 
of few greater errors, either in doctrine or practice, than 
this unchurching system. Many a name will be found 
written in the Lamb's book of life, that is not recorded 
on their" church register. It is not necessary to be 
associated either with them, or with us, in order to be 
associated with Christ. It is not their name, or ours, 
that men must confess, but the name of Christ. 

Let me close this chapter with one more thought. 
The fault is not in the Cross, if any of my readers should 
finally perish. The fault will be somewhere. ^' The 
curse causeless doth not come." And it w^ill be tremen- 
dous fault, that issues in the everlasting perdition of the 
soul. It will be guilt that the ocean of eternity cannot 
wash away, nor its fires burn out. It w^ill not be the 
fault of the Cross. No, never ! The Cross has no such 
responsibility. The fault is in those who reject it. And 
let those whose character does not bear the test of the 
Cross, think a moment what a sin it is to reject Him who 
came to seek and to save that which was lost, and who 
drank the bitter cup that they might not drink it ! ye 
who neglect this great salvation ! this is the sin which 
lies at your door. Do not repel the charge. Your own 
consciences are witnesses against you. Your heart does 
not beat for Jesus Christ. The fault is yours — it is yours 
who reject the Cross — it will forever be yours. That 
heart, that hand, perpetrates the dreadful deed ! — a deed 



THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER. 259 

one day to be bewailed — the hour forever embittered that 
looks back upon it ; a deed to be regretted and wept over, 
and the day ten thousand times cursed that gave being 
to the miserable man that perpetrated it. It is but a little 
wrhile, and you must descend to the tomb. No tidings 
from the Cross will break the silence of that narrow 
house, and no spirit of mercy ever enter that world of 
everlasting retribution. Christ will live and reign long 
after you are dead. His Cross will triumph, though you 
reject it and make your bed in hell. It can triumph 
without you, for you are but a poor worm. But it would 
fain carry you along in its triumphs ; nor will anything 
shut you out from this honor and blessedness, but your 
own voluntary and cherished unbelief. You must go far, 
far away, to put yourself beyond the reach of its attrac- 
tions. You may perhaps be far, far away, even now. 
But even now you can see it in the distance, and look 
toward it and live. Far off as you are, you may yet 
'' smite upon your breast and say, God be merciful to me 
a sinner," and look toward it with hope. 



CHAPTEK XV. 

THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION FROM FINAL- APOSTACY. 

Such is the attraction of the Cross, that what it once 
secures it holds fast forever. Those who are once inter- 
ested in it never lose that interest. Once attracted to it 
by a true and heaven-imparted faith, they never so break 
the bond as to be ultimately severed from Christ, and 
finally perish. There is no falling- away from the Cross. 

This is a truth which is liable to perversion and abuse, 
and ought therefore to be stated with some clearness and 
caution. There is no doubt that not a few who profess 
to have received Jesus Christ, and are for a time out- 
wardly conformed to the requisitions of the Gospel, do 
ultimately apostatize and perish. To deny this forms no 
part of the truth we propose to establish. Though, in a 
well-instructed community, there are comparatively few 
who, when they make a profession of religion, either 
intend or expect to renounce their profession, there are, 
notwithstanding, very many who profess religion with- 
out possessing it, and who, on that account, apostatize 
from their profession and perish. The Word of God, as 
well as melancholy facts which have taken place under 
our own observation, show us that the professed disciples 
of the Cross have become apostates, and have renounced 
both the principles and the duties of Christianity, beyond 
recovery. But it is no impeachment of the efficacy of 



THE CROSS THE PRESERA^ATIOxV, &c. 261 

the Cross, that men whom it never held at all it does 
not continue to hold. Persons of this description were 
never at heart believers in its truths and power. It is per- 
fectly natural for such persons to fall away, even from 
all their false appearances of godliness. It has only 
^' happened unto them according to the true proverb, the 
dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that 
was washed to her wallowing in the mire." The exalted 
Redeemer will say to all such deceivers, when he comes 
in the clouds of heaven to judge the world, '^ I never 
knew you." The true account of all persons of this 
description is given by the apostle in a single sentence : 
*' They went out from us, but they were not of us; for 
if they had been of us, they would no doubt have contin- 
ued with us : but they went out, that it might be made 
manifest that they were not all of us." 

Nor is it any part of the truth we propose to substan- 
tiate, that true believers in Christ may not and do not 
fall into great sins. Not only are all of them imperfect 
in holiness, but frequently lose so much of the spirit and 
power of godliness, as to bring deep reproach upon the 
sacred name by which they are called. Inward declen- 
sion almost always leads to outward negligence ; while 
an uncircumspect and untender walk and conversation, 
are very apt to degenerate into some of the forms of open 
wickedness. The Spirit of God is often thus grieved 
away from the bosoms of his own people ; and where that 
fountain of living water within them is at its ebb, or for 
a time diverted into other channels, not only do the 
plants of righteousness wither, but noxious weeds spring 
up in their stead. Where spiritual activity and diligence 
are superseded by indifference and sloth, where vain 
desires and inordinate affections after this world shut out 
the love of God, the fellowship of the soul with Him is 



262 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

interrupted, and the believer for a time exhibits little evi- 
dence that he has ever passed from death unto life. Such 
defections form no part of the Christian character ; and 
while from all such defections every believer is ultimately 
recovered, from none of them is he infallibly sure of 
being uniformly and always preserved. The Scriptures 
nowhere represent his condition as such, that in conse- 
quence of his union to Christ, he is in no danger of sin- 
ning. Their admonitions imply directly the reverse of 
this. " Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed 
lest he fall." " Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any 
of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the 
living God." ''Let us therefore fear, lest a promise 
being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should 
seem to come short of it." " Let us labor to enter into 
that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of 
unbelief." " Thou standest by faith : be not high- 
minded, but fear ; for if God spared not the natural 
branches, take heed lest he spare not thee." Admoni- 
tions like these would be out of place, if there were no 
danger. If there ever was a man who was warranted, 
from the strength and ardor of his piety, and from the 
assurance of his faith, to live above this cautious and 
watchful spirit, that man was the Apostle Paul. But, so 
far from bordering on presumption, his language is, and 
in perfect consistency with his conscious glorying in the 
Cross, " I keep under my body, and bring it into subjec- 
tion, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, 
I myself should be a cast-away." There is nothing in 
the nature of holiness to keep good men. from falling ; 
for if there were, neither the fallen angels, nor our first 
parents, would ever have lost their primeval integrity. It 
would be the highest arrogance for those, who have per- 
fectly conclusive evidence that they are accepted of God, 



FROM FINAL APOSTACY. 263 

to yield to the temptation that they are in no danger of 
falling into grievous apostacies. Everything is leagued 
against them, from within and from without: a heart des- 
perately wicked and deceitful above all things — an allur- 
ing and a threatening world — and a powerful, malignant 
and subtile adversary, watching every avenue through 
which he may enter and lead them captive at his will. If 
they do not fall, it is not because there is no danger of fall- 
ing; for they often stand on slippery places, and where it 
wants but little to precipitate them into the gulf below. 
It is with extreme caution that they do not turn aside 
from the way, and with great difficulty that they are res- 
cued from the pit. " The righteous are scarcely saved." 

But while all this is true, and important truth, it is also 
true that " the righteous shall hold on his way, and he 
that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger." 
What the Cross of Christ has done for all true believers, 
it has done effectually and forever. While many who 
profess the religion of Christ, and appear outwardly con- 
formed to it, will apostatize and perish ; and while true 
believers may, for a time, be left to themselves and fall 
into sin, and are always in a condition which calls for 
unsleeping vigilance ; yet will they persevere in holiness to 
the end, and be infallibly preserved from final apostacy and 
perdition. This is what I mean, when I say there is no 
falling away from the Cross. 

Before I call your attention to the evidence by which 
this truth is substantiated, it is important to a just view 
of this truth itself, to show hy what power, or influence, 
believers are thus preserved, and enabled to persevere. On 
this part of the subject, I desire to do honor to the Cross, 
and ascribe all glory to its atoning blood, its sanctifying 
power, and its unchanging faithfulness. No creature, 
were he ever so holy, can persevere in holiness, inde- 



264 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

pendently of divine power. It belongs to the nature of 
creatures, to '^ live, and move, and have their being in 
God.'' Gabriel does not possess a holy thought independ- 
ently of his Maker. The unremitting and powerful 
energy of the great Supreme is the immediate cause of 
all the holiness, perfected and continued as it is with- 
out intermission and forever, of cherubim and seraphim 
in the upper Sanctuary. Divine power is as necessary 
for the preservation of right principles and right affec- 
tions in the heart, as for their original existence. 
Firm in principle and vigorous in action as the faith of 
Christians may be — nay, though it were a thousand fold 
more deeply seated than it is, and though it uniformly 
pervaded and consecrated all their powers and conduct — 
it is not so incorruptible and unchanging that, if forsaken 
of God, they will not fall and perish. Their dependence 
on all-powerful grace is one of the sweetest and most 
cheering truths in all the Bible, and is most deeply and 
at the same time most gratefully felt, when they them- 
selves have most of the spirit of that blessed Book. Take 
from them their dependence on God, and they sink in 
despair. They are '^ kept by the power of God, through 
faith, unto salvation." Who, that is acquainted with his 
own heart, has not felt how much more in accordance 
with his own depraved desires to give w^ay than to resist, 
and to yield the conflict with his spiritual enemies, rather 
than maintain it ! The best of saints would be the worst 
of sinners, without preventing and sanctifying grace. 
Of all the disasters a good man deplores, this is the great- 
est, that God should depart from him ! Were their per- 
severance in holiness dependent on the saints themselves, 
there is not one among them all that would persevere. 
Moses would have turned away in disgust from the bright 
visions of Pisgah, butfor this; David would have perse- 



FROM FINAL APOSTACY. 265 

vered in adultery and blood, but for this ; but for this, Paul 
would have drawn back to perdition, though within siglit 
of his crown of righteousness. Hence, Moses so earnestly 
prays, " If thy presence go not with us, carry me not up 
hence !" and David supplicates, '^ Hold thou me up, 
and I shall be safe ;" and Paul expresses the assurance, 
'' The Lord will preserve me unto his heavenly king- 
dom." The Scriptures are full of this truth. '' The 
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord : though he 
fall, he shall not utterly be cast down, for the Lord up- 
holdeth him with his hand." '' Now unto him who is 
able to keep you from falling, and present you faultless 
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." 
What but the fulfilled promise, " My grace is sufficient 
for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness," 
spreading itself before them, like the cloud by day, 
and shining on their path like the pillar of fire by night, 
could ever guide the people of God to the heavenly 
landl 

The truth we wish to illustrate, may be made still 
more plain and unobjectionable, if in addition to the 
power and divine influence by which believers in the 
Cross are preserved, we also advert to the means by which 
they are kept from falling away. There are appointed 
and appropriate means of their perseverance, as well as 
an efilicient cause ; nor may the former be dispensed with 
any more than the latter. The Scriptures insist on this 
truth, as itself a component part of the doctrine that 
there is no falling away from the Cross. This is that 
feature of the doctrine which is overlooked by that class 
of its opposers, who affirm that it is a doctrine which 
tends to licentiousness^ and one which even the best of 
men would feel strong temptations to abuse. ** He that 
endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." " Be thou 
12 



266 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

faithful unto deaths and I will give thee a crown of life." 
" To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on 
my throne." '' He that overcometh, and keepeth my words, 
to him will I give the morning star." There is no hope 
without continued holiness. The heliever may not sup- 
pose his work is done, because he has found pardon and 
peace. It is not more necessary that he should come to 
the Cross, than that he should keep at the Cross, and 
live and die by the faith of tliat finished redemption. 
There is no divine purpose or grace to keep him from per- 
dition, if he does not persevere in faith and holiness. His 
own faith and holiness are themselves the very things to 
be secured in order to his salvation ; nor can there be any 
salvation without them. It is a disingenuous and per- 
verted view of the truth, to say, that because a man is 
once in Christ, he is sure to be saved, though he goes 
away from Christ. The true doctrine is, that once in 
Christ always in Christ, and that the only proof and way 
of being in him at all is to continue in him. " I am the 
way," says the Saviour. Men are no longer in the way 
to heaven than they are in Christ, and pursuing the 
straight and narrow path marked by his footsteps and 
his atoning blood. The Christian is engaged in a per- 
petual conflict ; and no sooner does lie put off his armor, 
than he is at the mercy of the foe. He must watch and 
pray, lest he be led into temptation ; he must live above 
the world, and walk with God ; he must hunger and 
thirst after righteousness, and grow in grace and the 
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. As he advances 
in years, he must make advances in piety, till his '^ hoary 
head is a crown of glory, because found in the way of 
righteousness ;" nor must he be satisfied until the last 
vestige of corruption is erased, and he " beholds the face 
of God in righteousness." Men, therefore, must continue 



FROM FINAL APOSTACY. 267 

in holiness, or die in their iniquity. God has solemnly- 
declared, ^'When a righteous man doth turn from his right- 
eousness, and commit iniquity, he shall die." He may 
not dismiss his solicitude, because he is once righteous, but 
must hold on his way. If he is lifted up, and grows 
presumptuous, because, in some favored hour, he has en- 
joyed some peculiar tokens of the divine favor — if he 
stops where he is, and is satisfied with his present attain- 
ments — he will draw back to perdition. He will not gain 
the prize without reaching the goal, nor wear the crown 
unless he achieves the victory. He may never be satis- 
fied, without pressing forward. '' I count not myself to 
have apprehended," says Paul ; " but this one thing I 
do : forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching 
forth to those that are before, I press toward the mark of 
the prize of the high calling of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus." There is no other doctrine of not falling away 
than that all true believers '' are kept by the power of 
God, through faith ^ unto salvation." A continued faith 
is the appointed means of perseverance ; and to look for 
the end without the means, is stumbling over palpable 
error, walking in darkness, and ignorantly and rudely 
separating what God has joined together. The design 
of the Cross is to make men holy as God is holy. God 
would make them meet for his presence, and by the 
continued and progressive influence of the death of his 
Son. The most confident will lose their confidence, if 
they work not out " their own salvation with fear and 
trembling, because it is God that worketh in them to will 
and to do of his good pleasure." 

I have occupied more of your time in these explanatory 
remarks than I intended, because the illustration makes 
the proof of our position more intelligible and easy. Our 
position is, that there is no such thing as finally falling 



263 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

away from the Cross. Once in Christ, always in Christ • 
once justified, always justified. The final perseverance 
of every true believer is certain. The reasons for this 
position I will state with as much brevity and simplicity 
as I can. 

We find one of the fallen children of Adam at the 
Cross ; penitent, humbled, and believing, at the foot of 
the Cross. He came there, not because it was naturally 
in his heart to come, for he was once a totally depraved 
being, and hated nothing so much as the holy salvation 
procured by God's crucified Son. Salvation was freely 
oflfered to him through the Cross, but he would not ac- 
cept it ; nor did he accept it until God, by his own 
almighty power, created within him a new heart and a 
new spirit, and transformed his character from death in 
trespasses and sins to spiritual life. ^'He is God's work- 
manship created anew in Christ Jesus, after the image of 
him that created him." Now, is there any reason to 
believe that God would thus have made bare his arm to 
awaken, convince and renew this once depraved creature, 
and conduct him to the Cross of his Son, and give him 
joy and peace in believing, only to suffer him, at some 
future period, to break away from the Cross and perish? 
Is it thus that the God of heaven honors and magnifies 
the riches of his grace toward guilty men ? Would he 
do all this, unmoved and uninduced by a single trait of 
excellence in the sinner, and from mere compassion 
toward him as self-ruined and condemned, and, now that 
he has imparted to him a portion of his own comeliness, 
leave his work unfinished, and suffer him to sink unre- 
covered, and irrecoverably, into deeper sin, and a deeper 
damnation'? Is such the method of grace revealed in 
the Gospel 1 Is this the extent of God's compassions? 
Does he do no more than introduce men, in all the weak- 



FROM FINAL APOSTACY. 

ness and ignorance of their spiritual infancy, into his own 
family, and then leave them to go alone, and stumble 
and fall, and perish ? Or does he, now that he has led 
them so far, pledge himself '' never to leave nor forsake 
theml" to keep them as the apple of his eye, to nourish and 
bring them up as children, and fit them for his heavenly 
kingdom? Which were the most like Godi I read 
in the Scriptures such declarations as these : " Whom 
he loved, he loved to the end." '' The gifts and 
calling of God are without repentance." ^^The Lord 
forsaketh not his saints ; they are preserved forever." 
*^ In whom also, after that ye believed^ ye were sealed 
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of 
your inheritance until the redemption of the purchased 
possession." ''Being confident of this very things ihdX 
he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it 
until the day of Jesus Christ." And what do they teach 
us, if not that the God of love never leaves his own work 
unfinished, and that what he begins with grace he ends 
in glory 1 It would be a new view of God, to my own 
mind, that he ever abandons those whom he has once 
united to his Son. It is, I am persuaded, a view unau- 
thorized by the Scriptures. There is joy in heaven over 
one sinner that repenteth ; but the joy would be prema- 
ture, if he had entered on a course that might, after all, 
terminate in the chambers of death. Strange that the 
dream should ever have been told, that the grace of God, 
so wonderful and so unchanging, does not preserve and 
secure the triumphs it has once achieved. 

Take now another view of this same general thought. 
This regenerated and believing sinner, so lately brought 
to the Cross, is pardoned and justified. By faith in the 
Cross of Christ, he not only possesses a different charac- 
ter from that he once possessed, but is brought into new 



270 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

relations. He is no longer under the law, but under 
grace. He is in a state of grace — a justified state. From 
the moment of his believing, the sentence of condemna- 
tion which he had incurred by his transgressions is 
removed ; he is judicially absolved from punishment ; his 
debt to divine justice is paid ; and a righteousness is 
imputed to him which answers every demand of the law 
of God. He is reinstated in the favor of his once offended 
Sovereign, and entitled to all the immunities of his king- 
dom. He is united by a living faith to the Saviour, and 
has become one with him, as the branches are united to 
the vine, and the members of the body to its head. The 
precious faith by which he is thus united to the Living 
Vine he '' obtained through the righteousness of God, even 
our Saviour Jesus Christ." Now, how does the notion 
of falling away from the Cross accord with this justified 
state of every believer? Paul, in speaking of this condi- 
tion of all true believers, uses the following language * 
'' Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom also we 
have access by faith unto this grace wherein we stand, and 
rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." He regards 
the believer's justification as a permanent reinstatement in 
the divine favor ; and he goes on to reason strongly and 
conclusively in support of his position. His argument is 
this : If God gave his Son to die for men, while they 
were yet enemies to him, how much rather, now that they 
are become his friends, shall he save them through his 
death! " God commendeth his love toward us, in that 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much 
more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be 
^^ saved from wrath through him." In perfect accord- 
ance with this are all the representations of justification 
which are given in the Bible. God never forgives one of 



FROM FINAL APOSTACY. 271 

the sins of his people, without forgiving them all. When 
he once forgives them, there is no more condemnation. 
" Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,^^ 
Justification is represented as being unto life, to life eter- 
nal. " There is no condemnation to them which are in 
Christ Jesus ; for the law of the spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." 
Is the hypothesis to be allowed, that those who bear so 
near a relation to Jesus Christ as to be the members of 
his own body, will ever perish? or is it more in accord- 
ance with what we know of him to believe the encour- 
aging assurance, " Because I live, ye shall live also!" 
The faith which was at first through his righteousness, 
will, through his righteousness, be perpetuated to the 
last ; and the union which it once forms with him will 
never be dissolved. Such is the obvious teaching of the 
Scriptures. '^ He that believeth shall be saved.^^ If, as 
we have already seen, none will be saved without perse- 
vering in holiness, and if all who believe shall be saved, 
then all who believe shall persevere in holiness. God 
has given this promise the solemn and emphatic form of 
a covenant — a covenant ''ordered in all things and sure," 
and pledging to his people '' the sure mercies of David." 
Read his own interesting description of that covenant : 
*' Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make 
a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of 
Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their 
fathers ; but this shall be the covenant that I will make 
with the house of Israel : After those, saith the Lord, I 
will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in 
their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my 
people. And I will make an everlasting covenant ^vith 
them, and I will not turn away from them to do them 
good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, and they 



272 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

SHALL NOT tum away from ine." In writing to the He- 
brews, Paul speaks of this covenant not only as a 7iew 
covenant, but a " better covenant," and established upon 
'-' better promises," than the covenant of Sinai. The 
covenant at Sinai was a pledge of the divine favor 
no long as the Israelites persevered in their obedience^ but 
did not promise persevering obedience itself; but this new 
covenant contains this " better promise," and this prom- 
ise constitutes its great pre'eminence. A justified state 
is one of the promises of this covenant — a promise made 
to faith as the revealed condition of its blessings. The 
great and primary condition of that covenant was the suf- 
ferings of the Cross; and it has been fulfilled, and '' by 
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanc- 
tified." But there is a subordinate condition fulfilled by 
believers themselves in those transactions into which faith 
enters with their great Surety, and this also has been ful 
filled. Nothing can be more to our purpose than the 
declarations of the apostle, urging the encouragements of 
this gracious covenant, when he says, " The just by faith 
shall live; but if any man draw back, my soul hath no 
pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back 
unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of 
the soul,*^ If there be such a final falling away from this 
state of justification, what is the import of such decla- 
rations as the following^? — '' He that belie veth on the Son 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- 
tion, but is passed from death unto life." " This is the 
will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the 
Son, an.d believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and 
I will raise him up at the last day.^^ " Whom he called, 
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he 
also glorified.^^ " Faithful is he that calleth you, Avho 
also will rfo it." " For the mountains shall depart, and 



FROM FINAL APOSTACY. 273 

the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not 
depart from thee, nor shall the covenant of my peace be 
removed, saith the Lord God, that hath mercy on thee." 
But there is a view of the believer's permanent hold 
of the Cross, which relates to the great Sufferer himself ^ 
and which furnishes evidence certainly not less satis- 
factor}^ of the truth we are considering. The Saviour him- 
self has a chartered right to the final perseverance in 
holiness, and the ultimate salvation of every sinner who 
once truly believes in him. It is a right guaranteed to 
him in the ages of eternity, and purchased and sealed by 
his atoning blood. '^ When thou shalt make his soul an 
offering for sin, he shall see his seed ; he shall see of the 
travail of his soul, and be satisfied." Paul speaks of 
those who have " the hope of eternal life, which God, 
that cannot lie, promised before the world began.' ^ To 
whom was the promise of eternal life made, before the 
world began ? Not certainly to men, because they were 
not in existence ; but to Jesus Christ, for all who should 
thereafter believe on him, and who were thus early 
given to him as the reward of his sufferings and death. 
He did not lay down his life for nothing, nor for a re- 
ward that was indefinite. It was " to the intent that 
now, unto principalities and powers in heavenly places,, 
might be known through the church,' ' which he re- 
deemed, '^ the manifold wisdom of God," and his tri- 
umphant victory over the Prince of darkness. Had the 
success of his great work been dependent on the ungov- 
erned will of man, none would have accepted his sal- 
vation ; or had it been dependent on their own fickle and 
faithless minds, when once accepted, there would have 
been no security that those who once came to him would 
not finally be cast out. And did he descend from 
heaven, and pour out his soul unto death, on any such 
12* 



274 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

uncertain and dubious enterprise 1 or had he the promise, 
before he left the bosom of his Father, of the conviction, 
the conversion, the faith, and the final perseverance and 
salvation of a '^ great multitude which no man can num- 
ber," not one of whom should furnish occasion, by ulti- 
mate apostacy, for the fiend-like exultation that the great 
Conqueror is spoiled of his reward ? Nor was this great 
promise ever lost sight of by the Son of Man, but often 
adverted to while he was on the earth. " All that the 
Father giveth me," says he, ''shall come to me, and 
him that cometh I will in no wise cast out.^^ '' Thou 
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give 
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.^^ " I give 
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Fa- 
ther which gave them me is greater than all, and none 
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." '' Fa- 
ther, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with 
me where I am, that they may behold my glory which 
thou hast given me !" Here lies the security against 
their falling away. The suffering Saviour has a claim 
upon them which is respected in heaven, and which he 
is able to enforce. We say of the Cross, what a remark- 
able man once said of one of its kindred doctrines : ''I 
understand, sir," said a friend, to the late Sir Rowland 
Hill, ''that you hold that terrible doctrine of election,'''* 
'' It is a mistake," replied Sir Rowland ; '' I do not hold 
election, election holds ?7ie." Believers hold the Cross, 
because the Cross holds them. I do not see that the 
Saviour has any security for the salvation of those thus 
given to him, if the doctrine of falling away be admitted. 
If one may fall away, all may fall away. The charter 
may be violated, and he may lose his reward, unless the 
grace of his Cross hold them fast and forever. There are 



FllOM FINAL APOSTACY. 275 

obliquities in their course, but his faithfulness is pledged 
to rectify them ; there are sins to which they are exposed 
and will commit, but that same faithfulness will purge 
them away. " I have made a covenant with my chosen," 
saith the Holy One of Israel; *^ I have laid help upon 
one that is mighty ; I have exalted one chosen out of the 
people. His seed also will I make to endure forever. If 
his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judg- 
ments, if they break my statutes, and keep not my com- 
mandments, then will I visit their transgression with 
the rod, and their iniquity with stripes ; nevertheless, my 
loving kindness will I not take from him, nor suffer my 
faithfulness to fail." 

The Father's engagement with the Son was a bona 
fide engagement ; and so long as God is on the throne, 
and is able to control their hearts and govern their con- 
dition and destiny, their unfaithfulness shall never be 
allowed to '' make the faith of God of none effect." 
Dangers may stand thick around all the paths they are 
traveling, and they may often tremble lest they fall by 
the hand of the enemy : but from that altar of interces- 
sion, he who bled on Calvary looks down and says to 
them, *'Fear not, little flock; it is my Father's good 
pleasure to give you the kingdom !" Nor could there be 
any such thing as the full assurance of hope, in this cove- 
nant and promises, if believers ultimately fall. No pre- 
sent evidence of a change of heart, be it ever so convinc- 
ing; no consciousness of love to God and faith in his 
Son, be it ever so strong and infallible ; no indications of 
a pardoned and justified state, be they ever so conclusive ; 
could warrant that full assurance of hope possessed by 
the saints of the Old Tesrament and the New, expressed 
by Abraham, sung forth so often and so devoutly by 
David, and gloried in by Paul, had there been any un- 



276. THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION 

certainty as to their holding out to the end. No living 
man can know that he will not at last lie down in heli, 
if he once admits the hypothesis that he may fall away. 
The assurance and certainty of salvation, so often enjoyed, 
and so uniformly required in the Scriptures, were a state of 
mind absolutely impossible, were not the attraction of 
the Cross powerful enough to kee'p all whom it once 
attracts. 

Let this great doctrine of the Cross, then, be, as it was 
designed to be by its Author, for the comfort and edifica- 
tion of all who truly fear God and love his Son. Here, 
Christian, is the pledge of your security. ''• Cursed is the 
man who trusteth in man, and whose heart departeth from 
the Lord his God !" Go on your way, and rejoice as 
you go. The Cross of your Redeemer is not so powerless 
as to be unable to keep you from falling, and present you 
faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding 
joy. The feeblest lamb is safe, once housed within the 
fold of the great Shepherd. There is no uncertainty as 
to the issue of this spiritual conflict, though it be sharp and 
long. Despondency is not one of the elements of ad- 
vancement. Christ received is heaven begun. He who 
is the Author is also the Finisher of your faith. Away 
with your discouragements, and look to Jesus. Away 
with your weakness, and look to Jesus. Away with your 
darkness, and look to Jesus as the light of life. Look back 
to him on the Cross ; look up to him on the throne ; look for- 
ward to him at his second coming. Your Saviour, your 
counselor, your righteousness, your strength, the captain of 
your salvation, your portion hung on that Cross, is now 
on that throne, and will soon come to judge the world 
in righteousness. If you have Christ, you have all. 
Heaven itself is not so great a gift as God's own Son. 
'' What shall we say to these things ? If God be for us, 



FROM FINAL APOSTACY. 277 

who can be against us ? He that spared not his own 
Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not, with 
him, freely give us all things ?" 

Nor is it less in keeping with the whole design and 
spirit of the truth here presented, that we say to you, 
that there is no well-grounded hope in Christy without per- 
severance in holiness, I entreat you to give this thought 
that place in your hearts which it deserves. Past efforts, 
past hopes, past experience, will be of little avail, if you 
now become weary, or ever cease to remember that '' he 
that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." In 
retirement and in the world, therefore, in prosperity and 
in adversity, on the mount and in the vale, ^' watch and 
pray, that ye enter not into temptation." You will have 
'^ manifold temptations," and trials of your faith ; " there- 
fore fear, lest, a promise being left you of entering into 
that rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." 

Nor may I conclude this chapter, without a word of 
affectionate admonition to those who are still out of Christ. 
My beloved friends, if all true believers must and will 
endure to the end, in order to be saved, what will be- 
come of you? If '' the righteous," though saved, saved 
infallibly and forever, are saved with so much effort, 
"where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" You 
have come in sight of the Cross, and have turned from 
it. You have to begin and persevere to the last, and you 
have not yet entered upon the path that leads to life. 
You have to fight the good fight of faith, and you are 
not only w^ithout your armor, but asleep on the field. 
And can you hope to reach the goal, to gain the victory, 
and wear the crown ? When so much is to be done, can 
you be safe in doing nothing? Oh, when will you 
receive Christ Jesus the Lord and enter upon that course 
in which you have something more than human assur- 



278 THE CROSS THE PRESERVATION, &c. 

ance, that you shall hold on to the end ? Once m Christ, 
always in Christ — what a motive is this to seek an interest 
in him ! JYo falling amay from the Cross — what a 
motive is this to flee to the stronghold, as prisoners of 
hope ! 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FULL ASSURANCE OF HOPE AT THE CROSS. 

Nothing is more natural, or more reasonable, than that 
the strength and ardor of hope should be regulated by 
the importance and magnitude of the objects on which it 
terminates. It is when the objects of their pursuit are 
vast and important, that the hopes of men become the 
stimulus to their greatest efforts. No man acts with a 
view to the past ; and if a wise man, he even quits the 
stronghold of the present, and carries his designs into 
the future. He acts for the next hour, the next day, the 
next year; and if truly wise, he acts for eternity. This 
is one of the points of difference between the Christian 
and all other men, that he acts under the influence of 
the highest and the strongest hopes. He is the creature 
oi presentiment — the purest and the noblest presentiment. 
Sometimes, like the Father of the faithful, " he hopes 
against hope," and where everything seems to be against 
him. If he has no hope in creatures, he has hope in 
God, and '^ out of weakness is made strong." The 
Cross is the emblem of hope ; hope constitutes one of its 
powerful attractions. At the Cross, the field of hope is 
amplified ; it is ever opening wider and wider. There is 
no grief to which it does not furnish mitigation, no evil 
for which it does not yield an antidote, nor any good 
which it does not promise. It is not so much over ter- 



280 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

restrial things that this hope diffuses its radiance, as over 
scenes that are opening- upon it from another world, 
where the last lights of time fade away in the brighter 
lights of eternity, and the last sounds of earth scarcely 
die on the ear before it is greeted with the songs of 
heaven. 

There is nothing in Christianity that forbids the hope 
of the Christian rising to full assurance. Two prelimi- 
nary questions settled, and every man is warranted in 
cherishing an assured hope of eternal life. The first is, 
is he sure that Jesus Christ is a divine and all-sufficient 
Saviour ? the second is, is he sure that he believes in 
him ? Doubt in regard to either of these points of inquiry 
disturbs his serenity, and necessarily produces hesitation 
and embarrassment. Where there is no doubt in rela- 
tion to these, his hopes assume the form of confidence and 
certainty. They are not the illusions of the imagination, 
nor the offspring of credulity; but the " fruit of the spirit," 
grown to maturity, and nurtured and invigorated by all 
the promises of God. 

A mind that is satisfied of the truth of the Cross, seeks 
no higher evidence of the Saviour's all-sufficiency, and 
asks no other, no surer way of salvation. The foun- 
dation is strong enough to support any hope that is built 
upon it ; nor is there any room for apprehension, or place 
for doubt, where men build upon this corner-stone laid in 
Zion. The doubt and fear of good men arise not from 
any secret suspicion that the system of redemption through 
the Cross is not worthy of their entire confidence, but 
rather from the fear that they do not believe in it, and 
from some lurking apprehension that they are deceived 
as to their own personal character. While it is true that 
hypocrites and other unregenerate men may deceive them- 
selves with false hopes, such as truly believe in the Lord 



FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 281 

Jesus J and endeavor to walk in all good conscience before 
him, may be assured that they are in a state of grace, and 
may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. There is 
no impossibility in a believer being conscious of his faith, 
nor do we perceive that there is any obstacle in the way 
of this consciousness, more than frequently exists to the 
consciousness of a multitude of his internal emotions. 
Faith in Christ so widely differs from unbelief, that the 
true believer may know when he exercises it. It is not 
a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, but an as- 
sured reality. So long as it is founded upon the divine 
promises, and accompanied by the evidence of those 
graces to which these promises are made, there is sinful 
mistrust in not indulging " the hope that maketh not 
ashamed." 

We learn from the Scriptures, that God often gives to 
his people this full assurance. '^ Now the God of hope," 
says the apostle, '^ fill you with all joy and peace in 
believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power 
of the Holy Ghost. ^' This apostle did not deem it an 
unusual attainment, when he said to the Thessalonians, 
*^ Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God ev^en our 
Father, which hath loved us, and given us everlasting 
consolation and good hope, through grace, comfort your 
hearts and establish you in every good word and work !" 
In writing to the Ephesians, he says, " In whom also, 
after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy 
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, 
until the redemption of the purchased possession.'' In 
writing to the Corinthians, he expresses the same thought: 
*' Now He which establisheth us with you in Christ, and 
hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and 
given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." What 
liigher evidence of belonging to the divine family, than 



282 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

to be thus sealed by the spirit of adoption ; and what 
surer guaranty of the purchased possession, than thus to 
be made partakers of the earnest of that inheritance ! It 
cannot have escaped the observation of careful readers of 
the New Testament, that one important point of differ- 
ence between Christians in the apostolic age, and those 
of the age in which we live, is found in the assurance of 
their hopes, and the obscurity and doubt so often attend- 
ing our own. Theirs was an age of trial, and God mul- 
tiplied to them the consolations of his grace. The strong 
lines of the Christian character were more fully and per- 
fectly developed in their experience and conduct than in 
ours. Theirs was the pattern churchy and designed to be 
a guide to every subsequent age. From, them we may 
therefore learn our own duty in this article of Christian 
experience. In what terms of unhesitating, glowing 
confidence, do we hear them giving utterance to the 
assurance of hope ! " Though our outward man perish," 
yet is "our inward 7nan renewed day by day." "For 
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh 
out for us a far more exceeding and eternal w^eight of 
glory." " Who, according to his abundant mercy, hath 
begotten us again unto a lively hope, to an inheritance 
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.'' 
" Which hope we have as an anchor to the soul y sure 
and steadfast. ^^ " I am persuaded that nothing can sepa- 
ate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
ur Lord." " We know that if our earthly house of this 
I ^'bernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an 
bc>use not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
'^Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while 
we are at home iu the body, we are absent from the 
Lord." " Whom, having not seen, ye love ; in whom, 
though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice 



FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 283 

with joy unspeakable and full of glory." These are 
delightful expressions of the full assurance of hope. 
They describe the calm and tranquil state of the mind, 
safely anchored in the storm, as well as its placid and 
triumphant progress over the waters, under serener skies, 
with every sail spread to the wind, and the destined and 
long-desired haven full and constantly in view. 

Nor have there been wanting instances, not a few, of 
the same triumphant hope in every age. Though this 
infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of 
piety, but that many a pious man may wait long, and 
pass through many conflicts before he attain to it, yet it 
is of frequent attainment. The life and death of many 
a child of God, among the taught, as well as among those 
who are teachers in spiritual things, among the afflicted 
and poor as well as among those who are the more 
favored objects of the divine bounty, attest this same 
blessed experience. When I see those in whose bosoms 
the love of God appears to have predominant sway ; in 
whose spirit the various graces of the Christian character 
are so blended as to exhibit the beauties of holiness ; in 
whose conduct there is found an habitual conformity to 
the laws of rectitude ; who are acquiescent in adversity, 
and humble in prosperity ; who are as persevering as they 
are happy, and as laborious and self-denying as they are 
comforted ; who are as distrustful of themselves as they 
are confident in the faithfulness of their Divine Lord ; and 
who are habitually more anxious to do their duty in this 
world, than they are perplexed about their condition in 
the world to come ; though I know that their characters 
still bear the marks of sinful imperfection, I honor their 
testimony when they affirm that their prospects are habit- 
ually unobscured by doubts respecting their own salva- 
tion. Many such Christians I have known — more I have 



284 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

read of — and multitudes of such I believe are to be found 
in the Church of God. 

Since, then, the Christian hope often rises to full as- 
surance, it is an inquiry of some interest, Whether all 
Christians may and ought not to possess this strong and 
undouhting confidence ? I have before remarked that this 
assurance belongs not to the essence of true piety, and 
that good men there are, who not always, and it may be, 
never enjoy it. It were as untrue as it were cruel, to 
affirm that there is'^o genuine piety, where this assurance 
is wanting. Spiritual darkness and embarrassment are 
not necessary proof of an entire destitution of evangelical 
faith. We should be slow to affirm, or to admit, that 
every season of spiritual depression is proof of a state of 
mind at enmity with God. But while this is true, every 
man acquainted with the scope and design of the Gospel, 
must see that there is no necessity for any good man in 
the world remaining in such a state of mind. It cannot 
be, that the system of truth and grace, which proclaims 
" glad tidings of great joy," was designed to encourage 
such a doubting hope and comfortless experience. The 
Scriptures do not describe true religion with such indefi- 
niteness, that it cannot be distinctly seen and understood ; 
nor is the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart so con- 
fused and obscure, as not to be discerned. Heavenly 
affections are not earthly ; nor is the supreme love of God 
the love of self and the world. There can be no insu- 
perable difficulty in the way of distinguishing between 
them. The leading characteristics of these two classes 
of affections are strong and prominent, and need never 
be misconceived or misinterpreted. They are infallible ; 
and when honestly applied, are clearly seen to determine 
the question whether men are, or are not, the disciples of 
Jesus Christ. The differences between the views and 



FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. ^ 285 

affections of good and bad men toward the method of 
redemption by the Cross of Christ, are not of that neu- 
tral character that it is impossible to determine what 
they are. They can certainly ascertain whether they 
fall in with this redemption, or fall out with it ; and 
whether the atoning, interceding Saviour is '' precious " 
to them, or as "a, root out of dry ground," in which 
they discover no form or comeliness. The Scriptures 
teach us that every humble man — every man who de- 
lights in God's law, and takes enjoyment in the secret, 
social and public duties of piety — every man who finds 
his pleasure in his dut)^ — every man who loves God and 
his people — and every man whose life and conversation 
are controlled by the precepts of the Gospel, is the sub- 
ject of regenerating' grace. It cannot be impossible to 
decide whether we possess such a character as this. The 
condition of the people of God in the present world is 
singularly adapted to develop and bring out this char- 
acter, and to exhibit the evidence of it, both to themselves 
and others. They are the subjects of a discipline, one 
great object of which is to ^' show them what is in their 
hearts." New scenes, new associations, new duties, new 
mercies, new trials, new temptations, are perpetually 
arising which bring their religion to the test. 

The best of all schools for the trial of the Christian 
character is the school of experience. God teaches men 
by his providence in a way that is very apt to undeceive 
them, if they are deceived, and to confirm and establish 
them, if they are not deceived. He leads them, as he 
did the children of Israel, through the wilderness, '* to 
prove them, and humble them^ and see wliether they 
keep his commandments or no." They are put to the 
trial of time and circumstance — of men and things — of 
snares and enemies — of truth and dutv. It is under such 



286 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

a discipline, that not a few who had strong hopes have 
been brought to see them crushed, and for the time anni- 
hilated ; while in the issue, such have been the abound- 
ing faithfulnesss and mercy of God toward them, that, 
although the developments of their character have filled 
them with unwonted self-diffidence and trembling, they 
have renewed and stronger confidence in God than ever. 
Cautious Christians have learned to be slow in deciding 
upon their character by any one criterion, or by any sud- 
den impulse of feeling, or by anything short of such a 
trial of it as shows them '' what manner of spirit they 
are of." There is an exception to this remark in the case 
of young converts ; and their experience and joy present 
a most delightful view of the love and tenderness of the 
great Shepherd toward the lambs of his flock. '' The 
bruised reed he does not break, and the smoking flax he 
does not quench." His tenderness and love are specially 
discernible, in this respect, to those youthful Christians 
whom subsequent events have shown were destined to 
an early grave. Such youthful converts rarely have 
their confidence disturbed. They are more usually saved 
from those fearful conflicts which bring to the test the 
hopes of more experienced piety. Because their course 
is rapid and short, it is bright and clear, and the light 
of heaven shines upon it all the way. Some Christians 
honor God by their death — otliers by their life ; and if 
young converts sometimes die in greater peace and 
triumph than many old believers, it is because older 
believers glorify him more by the life of the righteous, 
while the only way in which those whose race is short 
can glorify him is by their triumphant death. At the 
same time, it is not to be forgotten, that what older 
Christians sometimes lose in this vividness of joy, they 
gain by weathering the storm. They rarely pass througli 



FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 287 

the varied scenes of a long life^ without sometimes pass- 
ing under the cloud. Tried piety is sterling piety, 
though not always, and indeed not often, unclouded. 
But what the Christian is, is no criterion of what he 
should be. This discipline itself is one of the means by 
which a more uniform assurance is rendered a practicable 
and reasonable attainment. 

Nor may it be forgotten that it is a duty expressly 
required in the Scriptures. Paul says to the Hebrews, 
'' We desire that every one of you do shew the same dili- 
gence to the full assurance of hope to the end." To the 
Corinthians he says, " Examine yourselves whether ye 
be in the faith; prove your own selves: know ye not 
your own selves^ how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye 
he reprobates ?" To the Galatians he writes, '' Let every 
man prove his own work, and then shall he have con- 
fidence in himself alone, and not in another." The 
confidence of our fellow-men that we are Christians is 
not always proof of our Christianity. Our confidence 
should arise from the evidence which we ourselves per- 
ceive, and not merely from the good opinion which others 
form concerning us. To the '' saints that are scattered 
abroad," Peter writes, *^ Wherefore, the rather, brethren, 
give diligence to make your calling and election ^wre." 
It is a very plain truth, therefore, that no Christian ought 
to rest satisfied with a doubtful hope. Whether he is 
dead in sin, or begins to live ; whether Christ is his life, 
or whether he glories in another ; whether he is the 
friend of God, or his enemy; whether he has some 
gracious affection, or none at all ; are inquiries concern- 
ing which an enlightened conscience may be satisfied. 
*' Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not," saith the 
apostle, " then have we confidence toward God." 

Since, then, the full assurance of hope is attainable, and 



288 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

it is the duty of all Christians to make the attainment, it 
may not be unprofitable to institute the inquiry, Why is 
this attainment so rarely possessed ? This melancholy 
fact may be accounted for on some or all of the follow- 
ing principles. 

The first that we shall notice is, the want of knowledge. 
The more doubting and fearful will often be found among 
those who are partially ignorant of some of those great 
truths which lie at the foundation of a confident assurance. 
They are apt to have indistinct and unsatisfactory views 
of the nature of true religion, and are partially or badly 
instructed in regard to the difference between what is 
spurious and what is genuine. Others there are who are 
misinformed with respect to the proper evidence of true 
religion in the soul. They have imbibed the impression 
that it is communicated in some mysterious way, which 
cannot be intelligibly explained ; from the unexpected 
suggestion of some passage of Scripture ; or from some 
marvelous dream, or vision; or from some strong impres- 
sion made upon their minds, that they have found mere}' , 
and which they cannot account for, unless it be imme 
diately from God. Or perhaps they are looking for just 
such evidence as they have read or heard of in the 
experience of others, and perceived in the same way as 
others have perceived it. It would not be surprising that 
such persons are found in darkness, nor, indeed, if, when 
they find peace, they are fatally deceived. The true and 
only way of coming at the evidence of piety, is by com- 
paring the principles and affections of our own minds, 
and the conduct of our lives, with the Wo7'd of God, and 
ascertaining, by that standard, whether we possess the 
character of his children. Others have very imperfect 
and indistinct views of the way of salvation by the Cross 
of Christ. They do not apprehend and take strong hold 



FULL ASSUIlAiNCE AT THE CROSS. 289 

of the truth that their sins are all atoned for by the blood 
of the Lamb; that on their believing in Jesus Christ, his 
righteousness becomes theirs ; and that this great truth 
is able to sustain the most confident hope which perishing" 
men ever rested upon it. They do not discover the full 
provision made in the covenant of grace for their comfort 
and assurance. They do not understand and bring home 
to their own wants, nor apply to all the dangers and dif- 
ficulties of their spiritual career, the unfailing promises 
which the God who cannot lie has made to the '* right- 
eousness of faith." The most wary and cautious mind 
can ask for nothing more than the Cross furnishes, in 
order to impart vigor, and buoyancy, and assurance to its 
expectations. His salvation does not rest upon himself, 
but upon the all-sufficient God. ^' Willing more abund- 
antly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability 
of his counsel, he hath confirmed it by an oath, that by 
two immutable things in which it is impossible for God 
to lie, they might have strong consolation ^ who have 
fled for refuge to the hope set before them." This full- 
ness, this preciousness, this immutability of the Cross, are 
not present to the minds of doubting and weak believers. 
This most wonderful and most glorious way of salvation, 
by which the chief of sinners is made an heir of God 
and a fellow-heir with Jesus Christ, is too coldly received. 
Their minds do not dwell and their hopes do not rest 
upc«i it ; nor do they lose their apprehensions in an entire 
surrender and perfect abandonment of themselves to the 
sufficiency and faithfulness of this Almighty Redeemer. 
Others doubt if, though they have once taken strong hold 
of the Cross, they will not let go their hold. They are 
not satisfied of the certain and final perseverance of all 
those to whom God has once given true faith in liis dear 
Son, Doubts as to this truth must exert a disastrous 
13 



290 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

influence on all their hopes of heaven. If there is no 
absolute pledge of salvation to all who once come to 
Jesus Christ — if it is a possible thing even for the best of 
Christians to be justified to-day, and under condemnation 
to-morrow — who knows but he may die in a state of con- 
demnation 1 Without clear views of God's covenant 
faithfulness in making his people faithful to the last, 
there is no certain evidence of the final salvation of any, 
and can therefore be no such thing as the full assurance 
of hope. Ignorance or hesitation in any of these import- 
ant articles of God's revealed truth necessarily begets a 
doubtful hope. 

Another reason why this attainment is comparatively 
so rare is, the want of larger measures of grace. If the 
power of holiness in the heart is the only evidence 
of being in a gracious state, it is not wonderful that 
this evidence is not discovered in those who have but 
small measures of holiness. '' Christ in you the hope of 
glory." Where the image of Christ is but faintly drawn, 
it is but faintly discovered. Remaining depravity, in- 
dwelling, and especially outward sin, are always the 
source of doubt and uncertainty. They shake our hopes. 
Where the conscience is sensitive, it is very difficult to 
live at a distance from God, and in a state of coldness 
and formality, remissness and negligence, without ques- 
tioning the genuineness of our faith. God never meant 
that careless Christians, and those who are in a state of 
declension, and live without an abiding impression of his 
presence, should enjoy a full assurance. Distressing 
apprehensions and deep darkness overshadow the minds 
of all that class of Christians. '^ He that folio weth after 
me," says the Saviour, " shall not walk in darkness, but 
shall have the light of life." 

Another reason why this attainment is so unfrequentlv 



FUI.L ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 291 

made is, that Christians are very apt to make their hopes 
their idol. They think more of their hopes than of their 
holiness ; more of their hopes than of God. And God 
smites their Dagon, and it falls headless, and with its 
lifeless trunk before the Ark* They are more anxious 
to have the evidence that they are Christians, than to he 
Christians. What if they discover no evidence ; do they 
less desire to fear God and love his Son ? What if they 
"walk in darkness, and have no light;" would they 
desire on this account to trust no more " in the name of 
the Lord, and stay upon their Godi" There is too much 
selfishness in such a religion as this, to be buoyant with 
hope. Such Christians are always thinking of them- 
selves, and talking about themselves. Their hopes, their 
darkness, their experience, are more to them than all the 
world beside ! I have seen not a little religion like this, 
and I doubt whether it is possible for the human mind, 
in this morbid state, ever to possess the silent, strong, 
steady assurance of hope. An assured hope is not like 
the mountam torrent, but like a stream flowing from a 
living fountain, and often so quietly that it is scarcely 
visible but for the verdure on its banks. Nor does it 
cease to flow, though it sometimes runs under ground ; 
nor does it less certainly find its way to the ocean of a 
blessed eternity. It is rarely attained in the direct pur- 
suit of it. It comes in the pursuit of holiness, and in the 
faithful and diligent performance of every duty. It comes 
as the gift of God, with all the other graces that he gives, 
and is never found alone. 

Another reason which prevents the more frequent en- 
joyment of this assurance will be found in the deep and 
strong impressions which many good men possess of the 
suhtilty and deceitfulness of their own hearts. They know 
that the heart is deceitful above all things, and despe- 



292 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

rately wicked. It is not often, if ever, that our impres- 
sions of this truth exceed the reality of the truth itself. 
Sin often puts on the appearance of holiness, both in its 
inward emotions and its outward expression and conduct. 
There is, doubtless, great danger, and especially in 
minds that are characteristically disingenuous, lest those 
apparent graces which flow from a supremely selfish 
heart, should be substituted for those which are the genu- 
ine fruits of the spirit. Men sometimes make greater 
efforts to per^'uade themselves and others that they are 
Christians, than to be Christians in reality. It were no 
unexpected event that such persons should take up with 
a false hope. Very much the same outward conduct that 
flows from holy, may, for a time at least, also be the 
effect of unholy and ungracious principles. A well-gov- 
erned selfishness, wise discretion and policy, may lead 
an immoral man to reform his outward conduct — a dis- 
honest man to acts of justice and honesty — a selfish man 
to acts of kindness and beneficence. The strong Phari- 
seeism and self-righteousness of the natural heart, have 
also produced many striking examples of systematic de- 
votion. Many a Christian, in frequently reflecting on 
facts like these, feels afraid of accrediting the genuine- 
ness of his own piety. He does not see why he may not 
be deceived as well as others, nor why his graces may 
not be counterfeit as well as those of other men. 

There are two things which may serve to chasten, if not 
entirely subdue and eradicate, this causeless diffidence. 
The one is, that the apparent goodness which flows from an 
unregenerated heart is seldom,if ever, permanent. When 
the storm rages, and the sun beats, the fruit that grows 
upon such a tree becomes blighted, and withers, and falls 
off. There is a weak point in the character of the hypo- 
crite and self-deceived, that sooner or later discovers itself. 



FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 293 

The cares of this world, some unexpected change in his 
outward condition, bringing with it unlooked-for pros- 
perity, or sudden and disheartening tribulation, prove to 
be a trial of his faith which he cannot endure. The 
obligations of his apparent piety perplex and embarrass 
him, and he throws them off. They are not suited to 
his depraved mind, and he returns to his idols. He is 
not governed by the principles of the Gospel, nor does he 
feel the force of its motives. When sorely pressed with 
temptation, the restraints of a Christian profession will 
not bind him, and he is sure to break through them, and 
show, by incontestible signs, that his heart is not right 
with God. God is wont to place his true and faithful 
people in situations in which they exhibit their true char- 
acter, and in which it appears unclouded, and in all the 
light of truth and beauties of holiness ; and he is also 
wont to place the hypocritical, and faithless, and self- 
deceived in situations in which all their once favorable 
appearances vanish, and they show themselves to be just 
what they are. He has said, ^' All the churches shall 
know that I am he who searcheth the reins and the 
hearts." He tries the faithful until he manifests their 
faithfulness, and he more usually tries the unfaithful 
until their unfaithfulness is manifest. There is no evidence 
of piety so decisive, as habitual and persevering obedience 
to the will of God. The other thought to which I refer 
is, that good men may he unduly afraid of being deceived. 
They may be rational on every other subject, and irrational 
on this. They may be governed by the laws of evidence on 
every other subject, and on this be perfect sceptics. The 
Great Adversary is not a little interested in fostering this 
sort of scepticism, and thus spoiling their comfort. There 
are no graces so humble and vigorous, no light of God's 
countenance so clear and joyous, and no hope so tranquil, 



294 F^^^ ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

as not to be obscured and disturbed by the suggestion, 
Is it not possible that, after all, I am deceived ? What if 
good men should always reason thus ? What if, at the 
moment when the Psalmist was affirming, '^ as the hart 
panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after 
thee ;" what if, in the midst of that triumphant announce- 
ment of Paul, '' I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand;" these holy men had 
given way to the suggestion. Is it not a possible thing 
that I may be deceived? — who does not see the absurdity 
of such an hypothesis ? If there is, as we have seen, cer- 
tain evidence of piety, every Christian is bound to dis- 
cern and rely upon it. Objections to a man's piety, 
when it is fairly proved to bis own mind by certain evi- 
dence, are of no weight. The proof rests upon his 
knowledge ; the objection upon his ignorance. We can- 
not conceive a stronger objection to the piety of Peter 
than his thrice-repeated and profane denial of his Master ; 
feut it did not and could not prove that he was destitute 
of grace, because other things had furnished, and con- 
tinued to furnish, certain evidence that he was a renewed 
man. He could still say, '' Lord, thou knowest all 
Jthings, thou knowest that I love thee." 

It becomes the people of God, in forming a judgment 
of their own character, to judge of themselves with iin- 
biased impartiality. They have no right to judge too 
favorably of themselv^es, nor too unfavorably ; nor are 
they any more justified in mistaking gracious for ungra- 
jcious affections, than tho^e which are ungracious for those 
ihat are gracious, if they are impartially attentive to 
^what passes within their own bosoms, they will not form 
•an unrighteous judgment, nor will they so often be in- 
volved in perplexity. No good ever comes from a gloomy 
and disconsolate «tate of mind, nor is it any expression 



FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 295 

of any one Christian grace. Those persons who take a 
painful satisfaction in pondering upon their outward 
troubles and inward conflicts, who choose to dwell on 
their disconsolate state, and who do little else than call 
in all the melancholy objects and associations in their 
power, to augment their despondency, have very mis- 
taken views of the nature of true piety. If I am 
addressing any one child of God of this character, I 
would say to such a Christian, that he dishonors the 
sources of consolation that are treasured up in the Lord 
Jesus ; that he has much more reason to contemplate the 
goodness of God than his severity, and his past and prom- 
ised mercies than his present frowns ; and that it is his 
own spirit of distrust which is his greatest enemy. 

There is one way of obtaining the full assurance of 
hope, which is almost always successful : it is, by grow- 
ing in grace. Large and replenished measures of grace 
have a happy tendency in removing those doubts which 
distress the mind, and so often make it like the troubled 
sea when it cannot rest. They are naturally attended by 
increasing knowledge of the truth, by invigorated confi- 
dence in God, and by that heaven-imparted gratitude and 
cheerfulness which make the yoke of Christ easy, and 
his burden light. '^ Then shall we know, if we follow 
on, to know the Lord ; his going forth is prepared as the 
morning ; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the 
latter and former rain to the earth." That is a most 
precious exhortation of the affectionate apostle, ^'Where- 
fore, my beloved brethren, cast not away your confidence, 
which hath great recompense of reward." Those sea- 
sons are the most humble, the most distinguished for 
prayer, the most active, and the most strongly marked 
by self-denying effort, that are the most full of hope. 
Piety is then the most winning and lovely. Assurance 



296 FULL ASSURANCE AT THE CROSS. 

is no phantom. Press after it. '' Give diligence to make 
your calling and election sure." When the storm lowers, 
look aloft. Your shattered bark may labor and plunge, 
but the wind is fair, and the land is nigh. 

There is but one class of persons that have a divine 
warrant for despair : they are those whose impenitence 
is incorrigible. We can assure all such persons (hat 
religion is the sweetest consolation under every trial of 
this life, effectual support in the hour of death, and the 
triumphant expectation of a '^far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory;" but we must also assure them, 
that the same reasons which urge the penitent to hope, 
urge the incorrigible to fear. Sooner or later, every in- 
corrigible sinner must despair. He will outlive his hopes. 
Absolute, perfect despair will, ere long, be one of the 
very elements of his being. And is this the heritage, 
the frightful heritage, of any one of those who read these 
pages 1 Where is the man that must be such a sufferer 1 
My heart fails me in thinking of his woes. Of all the 
spectacles of grief ever contemplated, the most mournful 
is such a man. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

It were a gorgeous description to speak in appropriate 
words and befitting imagery of the things of time and 
sense. All that can please the eye of man seems to be 
spread around him for his gratification. The universe 
itself is displayed before him, like a magic picture 
endowed with life and motion, beauty and grandeur, in 
an endless variety of forms. The ocean heaves its bil- 
lows, the torrent dashes from the precipice, the stream 
glides through the rich meadow, for him. The lofty 
mountain, the quiet valley, the vast and silent forest, are 
for him. From the teeming grass at his feet up to the 
unnumbered and immeasurable orbs above him, a wide 
field is extended for the eye, and imagination, and heart 
of man. Gold glitters, honors are resplendent, pleasure 
sparkles, to inflate his avarice and pride, and to infatuate 
his sensuality. The domain is vast, its wealth countless, 
its beauty ravishing, and its variety exhaustless. The 
reason with which man is endowed has in a great degree 
subdued the elements under his control ; every year sees 
new trophies added to his conquests over the kingdom of 
nature ; earth, sea and air own his sway. The brute cre- 
ation minister to his needs and pleasures — fear him, love 
him, obey him. The intelligent beings, also, who walk 
the earth and constitute its chief worth and adornment, 
13* 



298 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

the honors and pleasures they pursue, their toil and 
attainments, offer a busy and attractive scene to his eye. 
Their literature, their bustle and traffic, their arts, their 
talent and character, their schemes, improvements, pas- 
sions, affections and purposes, form not the least interest- 
ing part of the great spectacle. It would seem as if in 
all this there were enough to satisfy our hearts — as if the 
utmost craving of our desires would here find a limit. 

It were no marvel, formed as it is with such exqui- 
site wisdom and goodness, and so full of God and 
of love to the creatures he has made, if this exterior 
world should present strong attractions. But the Cross 
of Christ possesses attractions that are yet more strong. 
^' God forbid," says the great apostle, ^^ that I should 
glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world !" 
" What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for 
Christ ; yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for 
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and 
do count them but dung that I may win Christ." 

The power of the Cross in thus crucifying the world, 
every Christian has experienced. In this great feature 
of his character he is not what he once was. " If any 
man be in Christy he is a new creature ; old things are 
done away, and all things are become new." The turn- 
ing of the thoughts and desires from time to eternity is 
the sum and substance of that spiritual renovation by 
which Christianity lives in the hearts of men, and with- 
out which no man can enter into the kingdom of God. 
Men there have been, who, in comparison with other 
and more enduring interests, have not thought this world 
worthy of a glance. If they thought of it, it did not 
absorb their attention ; if they sought it, they were not 



THE WORLD CIIUCIFIED EY THE CROSS. 299 

ensnared by it; if they felt an interest in it, it was only 
that interest which religion enjoins. 

The Cross sets in their true light the things of tinae and 
sense. It shows that they are but the things of time 
and sense. It proclaims that, with all their enchantment, 
they have this inherent blemish, that they are temporaL 
The remedy for a sinning, is a remedy for a dying race : it 
shows nothing more clearly, than that the objects of sense 
are limited to time as well as to earth ; they relate to the 
present, and have no concern with the future. No 
quality nor excellence can render them permanent. If 
beauty could render them durable, why is the flower so 
fading, and why does infant loveliness wither on its 
mother's bosom 1 If grandeur could render them per- 
manent, wherefore do empires crumble, and the dark 
clouds dissolve in lightning and thunder ? If learning, 
and intellect, and wit, and fancy could give them per- 
petuity-, why are names forgotten, and volumes lost, 
which once filled the world with their famel Or if 
strength and variety would make them lasting, wherefore 
is it that princes '' die like men," or '^ riches take to 
themselves wings, and fly away as an eagle toward 
heaven ?" and why do forests fall, or the whirlwind pass 
away that uproots them 1 The rainbow that plays in the 
adverse sunlight seems for the moment a vast and stable 
arch, that spans the earth, and reaches to the clouds : we 
look again, and it is gone ; not a vestige remains ; all is 
vacancy. Thus it is with all earthly things. They are 
like a vision, or like those false waters which flow in 
eastern deserts, and at the approach of the thirsting wan- 
derer vanish into air. The " pleasures of sin are for a 
season;" the ^^ fashion of this world passeth away." 
They are dark shadows which fall upon the world, when 
seen from the Cross. Nor is it merely the evanescent 



300 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

nature of the world which the Cross discloses, but its en- 
snaring and corrupting nature. The things that are seen 
are in perpetual conflict for the mastery over the mind. 
Whatever '^ regales the life of sense," has a tendency 
to withdraw our hearts from the *' life of faith ;" while 
whatever '' regales and satisfies the life of faith with- 
draws them from the life of sense." This is one of the 
lessons of the Cross. Light and darkness, good and evil, 
bitter and s\^et, are not more irreconcilable than Christ 
and the world. Neither is satisfied without controlling 
the whole man, and therefore they are perpetually at 
war. Every man is either a whole-hearted Christian, or 
a whole-hearted worldling. 

With the same clearness does the Cross set in their 
true light the great realities of the world that is invisible. 
It reveals things of a different nature and a higher order 
than the things of time. What are they 1 The mind is 
at once chastened and sobered in the contemplation of 
them. The imagination cannot paint them, because it 
cannot grasp them, nor is it adequate to receive just and 
full impressions of their excellence, beauty and grandeur. 
Negatively, we do indeed know much of that world which 
lies beyond the horizon of this earth. The Cross has 
taught us that there is no sin there, and no sorrow, and 
no tears. There is no hunger and no thirst. There is 
no sickness and no death ; for " life and immortality are 
brought to light by the Gospel." Throughout the vast 
extent of that illimitable empire, there is not a pang, not 
a sigh. Something Ave know absolutely also : a few rays 
have reached us from those distant spheres, and these are 
so glorious and dazzling as to overwhelm us with won- 
der. We know it is a world of surpassing splendor, of 
life and light, of perfect harmony and unutterable joy 
— all the purchase of his Cross. There is the King 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 301 

eternal, immortal and invisible ; the spiritual kingdom 
which originated in his infinite grace; the truth and 
principles by which that kingdom is governed ; the privi- 
leges which it confers, its liberties and its divine charter. 
There are the myriads of the unfallen, the spirits of just 
men made perfect, the Lamb that Avas slain, and the 
heaven which is his and their dwelling-place echoing to 
anthems of praise. Or if we turn to other and different 
scenes of which the Cross admonishes us, they are the 
throne on which He sits before whose face the heavens 
and the earth flee away, and no place is found for them ; 
they are the final sentence and reward — the wicked 
gone and going into everlasting punishment, and the 
righteous into life eternal. 

Nor have any of these the inherent blemish which 
attaches itself to the objects of sense. The Cross is 
emblematical of that eternity whence its sufferer came, 
and that imperishable heaven whither he is now gone. 
It is their immortality which constitutes their glory. The 
material heaven and earth shall pass away, but these 
things shall not pass away. There the reign of life 
begins, and the destroyers are there destroyed. The 
relentless scythe of time with which he sweeps spoiler 
and spoiled into oblivion, there has no power. As God 
himself is infinite and eternal, so likewise his abode, the 
dwelling of his glory, the inheritence of his people, is 
permanent and secure. Its pillars are supported by his 
mighty hand, its roof is spread out and sustained by 
liis power and love, and it will stand in imperishable 
majesty forever. " In my Father's house are many 
mansions," says the Saviour ; " if it were not so I would 
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." And 
so will the mighty prison of his justice, with its ada- 
mantine gates, and its impassable walls of fire, and the 



302 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

smoke of its torments ascending forever and ever, remain 
imperishable. There is no more effective demonstration 
of the perdition of ungodly men, than is furnished by 
the Cross. " If these things be done in the green 
tree, what shall be done in the dry]" Eternity is a 
thought which in its full import is too wonderful for man 
to fathom. We repeat the word ; we endeavor to de- 
fine it, to realize it, but finite faculties are unequal to the 
task. We look at this earth, so sure and steadfast, the 
receptacle of our frail bodies when they sleep beneath 
its surface; we survey its everlasting hills, and its 
mighty rivers flowing and still flowing on in their time- 
worn channels; we gaze upon the stars which shine 
upon the graves of countless generations ; but these oflfer 
only a faint similitude of the duration which survives the 
ravages of time, and lives in the boundless future. 

The views which Christian men take of eternity are 
peculiar to themselves, because they have peculiar views 
and feelings towards the Cross of Christ. They are so, 
in the source and principle in which they originate. The 
evidence which the lights of reason and nature throw 
upon the great realities of the coming world is indeed 
amazingly strong. Some of the loftiest minds of an- 
tiquity seemed to have a foreshadowing of these great 
truths. But they had no point of departure upon a 
.heavenly chart when they launched upon their voyage 
of discovery. Their attempts are remarkable, in many 
respects, as a display of comprehensive intellect and 
acute powers of disquisition ; but they remain as monu- 
ments of the inability of minds, unaided by heavenly 
wisdom, to grasp the wonders of eternity. The most 
satisfactory reasoning is not always the pledge of perfect 
intellectual repose. The experience of the past has 
given too many instances of deductions that seemed se- 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 303 

curely established, and exalted to the rank of incontro- 
vertible truths, which time and evidence have dislodged 
from their high station, and consigned to the long cata- 
logue of errors and false hypotheses which, for a while, 
amused mankind. The convictions of a Christian mind 
in relation to the vast hereafter, are founded only in 
that confidence in the divine testimony which is the sub- 
stitute for all other evidence. '' This is the victory 
which overcometh the world, even your faith,^^ For 
man, who is '^ born like the wild ass's colt," to reason 
where the infinite and unerring intelligence hcts decided, 
is the rebellion of the created against the uncreated mind. 
With the revelations of the Cross in our hands, the rea,li- 
ties of eternity are truths which we do not wish proved 
so much as felt. Where the Cross has spoken, faith has 
unwavering confidence. To a believing mind, Jesus 
Christ seems, in his word, to present himself a second 
time in his character as the Creator. Just as at his word 
the visible world rose into order and beauty from the 
original chaos, so, when he speaks in his word, things 
unseen step forth into life, and put on forms of reality. 
They are not visions, but have a substantial existence, 
when discovered by that '^ faith which is of the operation 
of God." The faith of the true Christian is one of the 
senses of the soul. It is the taste which hets a sensible 
relish for divine things ; it is the touch which is conscious 
of the correspondence between the renewed nature and 
its Divine Author ; it is the delicate sense which inhales 
those fragrant breezes of heaven which fan and blow upon 
it ; it is the ear which hears when God speaks ; it is the 
eye to which things unseen are no longer shadows, because 
" God hath revealed them by his Spirit." This is the 
source and principle from which all right views of eternal 
realities originate, and which give them their peculiarity. 



304 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

Nor are they less peculiar in their strength and vividness. 
Because they are the convictions of certitude, they are 
strong- and impressive convictions. They differ from those 
which are found in the minds of men, who, while they be- 
lieve them, give them a place merely in their own mental 
abstractions, and lay them aside among the well -arranged 
and recognized articles of a long established and orthodox 
creed. They are not so much the views of the student, 
as of the Christian ; not so much the impressions of the 
cautious reasoner, or the erudite professor of science, who 
submits his conviction to the force of demonstration, as 
the vivid and thrilling impressions of one who, because 
he believes them, feels their power. There is a belief 
which takes hold of the intellect only, but does not reach 
the affections. It is the cold assent which we accord to 
the truth of mere speculative propositions. It does not 
penetrate beyond the surface, and is often, indeed, an 
unwilling and reluctant conviction. It '' leaves its marks 
upon the intellect;" it may even penetrate the conscience ; 
but it does not reach the heart. It scarcely agitates, and 
never so interests as to elevate and purify. It is the belief 
which many a man entertains of the existence and love- 
liness of virtue, while it has no influence upon his affec- 
tions. It is the belief of a philosopher in the claims of 
humanity: it brings conviction, but no acts of benevolence 
or philanthropy. It is the belief of a despot in the beauty 
and excellence of freedom, which does not excite a spark 
of patriotism, or love of justice. To prove to one blind 
that there is a sun in the heavens, were but a poor 
substitute for that glorious light which plays around his 
sightless eyeballs. His belief in it is rational, cold ; but 
it is not sight : there is no joy in it, such as greets all 
animated nature, at the dawning of a new day. There. 
is a strength and vividness in the impressions of eternal 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 305 

things entertained by a spiritual mind, which the world 
knows not of. They are not empty musings, but ele- 
vated, heart-stirring themes. They have an imction from 
the Holy One. They quicken the pulse, and cause the 
bosom to throb with emotion. 

And they are habitual^ if not steadfast views. While 
neither perfect constancy nor perfect uniformity may be 
claimed for them, they possess a power which, when duly 
felt, extends itself to all times, as well as all places. 
They are not the objects of those spasmodic actions of 
the mind, which are vigorous and sprightly to-day, and 
to-morrow have lost all their energy. They are not in 
their own nature a flickering flame, but one that burns 
steadily, because ignited at the inner sanctuary. In all 
worldly enterprises, a vacillating turn of mind is one of 
the surest indications of weakness, as well as of ultimate 
defeat. It is not, surely, less so in a religious life, where 
the aim and end are one, and the means are one, and the 
grace to help is one, and where all are capable of pro- 
ducing a uniform effect, and actually urge to a uniform 
course. Experience and observation, sufficiently painful, 
have abundantly proved that one of the more unhappy 
characteristics of a certain kind of piety is, that it is 
subject to strong and fitful excitement. It may be in- 
woven with the truths of the Cross, but it is not nour- 
ished by them as it should be. The goodness of Ephraim 
was as " the morning cloud and the early dew that passeth 
away." The objects of faith have in themselves no such 
mutability. God never alters ; heaven never alters ; hell 
never alters; the truths of the Gospel never aUer. -A 
spiritual mind almost instinctively revolts from a religion 
that is thus varied by paroxysms. It ^' meddles not with 
things that are given to change." Amid all the varia- 
tions of his religious experience, his views of things that 



306 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS 

lie beyond the present world are the least variable ; his 
faith in them is the firmest principle of his spiritual char- 
acter. 

Nor is it of less importance to remark, that the views 
of eternal realities taken at the Cross are welcome and 
joyous views. Never was there a more egregious error 
than that strong and steadfast views of the realities of the 
eternal world are joyless. There is an occasional and 
cursory view of them that is indeed pensive ; while there 
are views of them so clear and vivid that they never fail 
to awaken and sustain bright and buoyant emotions. 
This is their true nature. It were proof that they are not 
what they are, or else a sure indication that there is some- 
ithing wrong in the mind. that contemplates them, where 
they dry up the sources of joy. Unhappy Christians 
there are, but unhappy Christianity there is none. There 
is no room for pensiveness and depression where eternal 
realities form the sources of enjoyment. They are not 
those cold, meagre and jejune things which a class of 
minds are apt to regard them ; but rather do they possess 
a richness, a variety, a surpassing beauty and loveliness, 
that are fitted to produce those warm and delighted emo- 
tions after which the renewed nature so ardently pants. 
In his more favored seasons, the Christian's absorption 
in them is like that of the artist in his ideal labors, or 
like that of the student in his favorite themes. It is not 
easy for him to lay them aside. They form for the time 
a part of his being. They have a place in all his habits 
of thought ; they are his air, his light, the element in 
which he breathes, the very life-blood which warms his 
bosom. Oh, they are delighted visions ! They are hal- 
lowed, transporting, transforming views which the Cross 
realizes ; he lingers amid such scenes, and with delighted 
vision gazes upon the wonders of a loftier creation. 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 307 

It were not surprising- if such views should exert a 
strong practical influence. There is no part of the 
Christian character that is not affected by them. The 
Cross is the mirror which reflects eternity. Things 
seen and temporal throw shadows upon it, envelop it 
with clouds, and exhibit the picture in inexplicable 
confusion. As, in looking upon the canvas on which 
the cunning pencil of the limner has portrayed a land- 
scape, or the human features, or has transferred some 
memorable fact in history, if we would see its true merits, 
and have them stand out before the eye as they presented 
themselves to the eye of the artist, we must view it from 
a certain point, and one particular light ; so is it only as 
men look on things unseen that the light is reflected 
which exhibits their own immortal destiny. . The Cross 
is that point of vision. It is here the believer feels that a 
few years at most, perhaps a brief day, is all that sepa- 
rates him from that vast world which is unseen and eter- 
nal. This clayey tabernacle, this mud-walled partition, 
broken down, and we live and move amid those won- 
drous realities. This transparent veil, this frail and per- 
ishable web of human life, which, like the airy gossa- 
mer, is the sport of every breeze, which an insect may 
rend in twain, a cold frost blight, or a damp night dis- 
solve, once broken, and we ourselves become a part of 
them. It is but a little step, a span's breadth, from time 
to eternity ; let but a breath, a pulse stop, and the finite 
is exchanged for the infinite. Every material object sug- 
gests to a contemplative, a truly spiritual mind, objects 
that are immaterial ; and, as if conscious that his destiny 
is a thing apart from theirs, they are continually thrust- 
ing him from them, and are urging him away. Every 
wind that blows wafts him toward eternity ; every wave, 
every current, is drifting him to its illimitable shore. The 



308 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS 

man who has no impressive views of the interminable 
future, of necessity attaches little value to his own 
being beyond that of a crawling worm, or a gaudy 
butterfly. We need the power of the well-defined and 
indestructible thought, that what we now are is but the 
germ of a deathless existence beyond the grave, that our 
present being is but the rudiments of what we shall be 
hereafter, in order to appreciate ourselves. The thought 
of Eternity is a great and stupendous thought. Even 
viewed at a distance, and as something in which we can 
have no part, it must overwhelm with its magnitude and 
grandeur. But combine with this the certainty that this 
eternity will be ours, as time is now ours — that we shall 
live in it and comprehend it, as we do the passing moments 
of this life- — and this world, which before seemed a wil- 
derness, now becomes the porch and vestibule of that 
'' building of God," that '* house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." That man regards the soul as 
of little worth, who is a stranger to the Cross of Christ. 
Not until he views his own existence in the light of that 
immortality which the Cross has stamped upon it, does 
he perceive that it surpasses in value all the wealth and 
glories of the material creation. His body shall indeed, 
for a little while, sleep under the clods of the valley ; but 
the still more curiously-wrought spirit shall hold on its 
way, through a duration that shall never end, beyond 
the stars and above the wreck of earth. The winter of 
the grave does not bind it in its chains. The spring-time 
of a new year dissolves the dull, cold ice of mortality — a 
year marked by no day, nor weeks, nor months — che- 
quered by no seasons — an eternal year that shall roll 
onward forever. He surveys his immortality with won- 
der, just in the measure in which he surveys the 
Cross with wonder. It is not a visionary existence with 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 309 

which he is endued, nor the fairy-land of earth for which 
he was born. Higher pleasures, greater honors, more 
abundant and more priceless wealth, are displayed before 
him, and from the Cross he learns that to this inheritance 
he may become an heir. 

This, however, be it ever so powerful, is but a single 
impression. Such views exert a wider and deeper influ- 
ence. They impart its fitting elevation to the Christian 
character. We know how debased and degraded the 
character of man is by nature, and what powerful and 
well-adapted agencies the God of love employs for the 
purpose of elevating and purifying it, and making it meet 
for his presence and favor, and the holy society where he 
dwells. The appropriate force and energy of those vari- 
ous and combined considerations by which he thus acts 
upon the minds of men consist mainly, if not entirely, in 
the things that lie beyond the region of time and sense, 
and of which the Cross is the great witness. Truth 
loses its distinctive nature and properties, it is pointless and 
powerless, when once severed from eternity. It can no 
longer perforate the conscience, nor penetrate the heart ; 
it is no longer " the fire and the hammer that breaketh 
the rock in pieces." Eternity alone imparts to it its 
beauty, its symmetry, its dignity, its authority. Of all 
important and essential truth eternity itself makes a part ; 
penetrating and mingling itself with all other truths ; 
permeating them all ; itself the truth of truths, teaching 
and enforcing all others, and by virtue of which they are 
truths. The first impulse and habitual aliment of the 
Christian character, therefore, will be found in the con- 
templation of those invisible realities which lie beyond 
the horizon of earthly things. This is both the starting- 
point and the goal ; the beginning, the middle, and the 
end. It is the *' prize of our high calling ;" the mark to 



510 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

which the more matured in religious experience may 
look back, and to which both the aged and the young, 
''not as though they had already attained," may alike 
look forward. The eye of the mind must see what the 
eye of sense cannot see — the ear of the soul must hear 
voices which never fall on the outward hearing — this 
thinking and sensitive existence must be brought into 
habitual contact with a coming futurity — or there is no 
hope of producing within it a conformity to God and 
heaven. 

The moral history of man is, in this respect, a uniform 
history. The first sound that enchains the ear of child- 
hood is from distant spheres. The impression which 
this world makes upon the dawning senses is gradual ; 
the first word of eternity is never forgotten. And even 
where the hopeful years of childhood have escaped these 
affecting instructions, and where the love of the world 
and the influence of the passions have warped the con- 
science and chilled the sensibilities, if there is any thought 
that strikes its root deep, it is the thought of eternity. 
That indifference to the claims of true religion, that 
apathy and moral paralysis which are the unfailing 
symptoms of spiritual death, are to be attributed to the 
power of things seen and temporal. Men walk around 
with the brutes beneath the infinite heavens, without 
directing their eye thitherward ; they glide down the 
stream of time without looking into the unfathomable 
eternity, the inexplorable infinite, compared with which 
earth and time are motes and vanity. The first solemn 
and deep impression made upon such minds is associated 
with some startling views of eternity. In the midst of 
temptation this is the thought which alarms them. In 
the midst of mirth the sound vibrates on their ear, and 
mars, often when tliey are unconscious of it, their false 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 311 

peace. Conscience, though disregarded and enslaved, 
like the thralls who bore the human skull into the 
banqueting-halls of their Egyptian masters, obtrudes this 
thought upon their hours of carelessness and merriment, 
and not in vain reminds them of an eternal heaven, and 
an eternal hell. And when, by the gracious power of 
the Divine Spirit, they are led to turn their feet to the bet- 
ter country, it is because the scenes of' the coming world 
are made to possess, in their view, a reality, importance 
and nearness which they had never attached to them 
before. And when, in their progressive but too tardy 
pilgrimage, they are tempted to turn aside from the 
straight and narrow path which leads thitherward, no- 
thing so certainly recalls them from their wanderings as 
some unlooked-for glimpse of the opening heavens. The 
act of setting their affections on things that are above, de- 
taches them from things that are on the earth. The vapid 
pleasures of earth cannot endure the strong and steady 
light of thoughts and affections thus concentrated. The 
mind that has a heavenward tendency, instead of being 
carried away by the illusions which the eye of sense 
throws over the pageantry of the world, becomes dis-^ 
ciplined to the effort of bringing this world into subser- 
viency to another and a better, and instead of giving it 
the preeminence, makes such a use of it as that it becomes 
no unimportant auxiliary to higher and more enduring 
mterests. It is impossible for the Christian character td 
take a high tone of steadfastness, or consistency, unless it 
be " adjusted by the claims of eternity." Without such 
an adjustment, there is no Christian that will not be 
brought under the tyranny of his spiritual enemies. In- 
ferior motives may deter him from occasional sin, and 
from open and scandalous sins ; but they will not restrain 
him from sins that are less odious in the sight of the 



312 THE WORLD CRUCIHED BY THE CROSS. 

world, and sins that are secret ; much less will they in- 
duce him to " abstain from the appearance of evil," and 
put him beyond that state of constant alarm lest the 
warring elements within his bosom break out, and the 
'^ sin that dwelleth in him" obtain the mastery over his 
outward conduct. And if, notwithstanding his inward 
conflicts, he is progressively the conqueror, it is through 
'' the power of an endless life." As he goes on his way, 
it is with a strength and vividness of spiritual affection 
sustained only by things unseen. His love becomes more 
ardent and uniform, his repentance more genuine and 
deep, and his faith more animated and strong, because 
'^ he endures as seeing Him who is invisible." His hopes 
are more triumphant, and his piety more exemplary, 
because he "walks with God." He has a deep and 
cherished sympathy with all that is meek, humble and 
lovely ; all that is pure and true ; all that is honorable 
and of good report. There is a tone of moral feeling, a 
cast of character, a caution and a frankness, a loveliness 
and a loftiness, which find their aliment only in the 
contemplation of what is unearthly. It was this that 
made the early Christians what they were — holy men, 
true men, men of prayer, men of God, men of whom 
the " world was not worthy." His course is upward ; as 
the eagle towers toward the star that lights this lower 
world, onward he goes with bolder wing and strengthened 
vision. Nor is it until, a wanderer from the Cross, he is 
stricken by some envenomed dart of the fowler, that he 
flutters and falls to pine amid the uncongenial atmo- 
sphere of earth. 

Not less obvious is it, that the power of things unseen, 
as experienced at his Cross, is felt in imparting religious 
enjoyment. It has already been remarked that the views 
of eternal realities, of which we are speaking, are, in 



THE WORLD- CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 3x3 

their own nature, joyous contemplations. If this be true, 
it would seem that the joys of piety are always augmented 
by them, and just in the proportion in which those scenes 
which are peculiarly the objects of faith are present to 
the mind, and become the absorbing themes of thought. 
Most men find their enjoyment in their own will and 
pleasure. This is the character of a world that lieth in 
wickedness. But those there are, who look for their 
satisfaction rather to that state of mind, and those spheres 
of action, in which they are most dead to things seen and 
temporal, and to things unseen and eternal most alive. 
With them it is a settled point, that the only happiness 
worth seeking consists in the enjoyment of those great 
realities which lie beyond this world, and which are so 
well fitted to induce that life of faith and those habits of 
obedience in which they walk in the " light of God's 
countenance. " This is the only prescription for a health- 
ful and happy mind which the great Physician has given 
to our diseased and unhappy race. "To be carnally- 
minded is death ; but to be spiritually minded is life and 
peace,^^ The only way of contemplating the things that 
are not seen with complacency and delight, is to dwell 
upon them. The men of the world well understand this 
philosophy. The miser does when he counts his gold ; 
the voluptuary does when his polluted imagination dwells 
upon his pleasures ; and so does the man who pants for 
fame, office and power. The Christian understands it 
when he looks at the Cross, and there dwells upon things 
unseen. '' Whom having not seen we love," saith the 
Apostle Peter, " in whom, though now we see him notj 
yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
glory.'''' They are apt to be abiding joys, and to partake 
more and more of the strength and permanency of that 
eternity by the contemplation of which they are en- 
14 



314 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BV THE CROSS. 

kindled. There is a sacredness and grandeur in such 
objects of thought, and there is a beauty and loveliness 
in them, and there is a power and energy in them to 
excite and sustain ardent and impassioned emotions. One 
reason why our religious emotions are so languid and 
cheerless, why our harps are so often hung upon the 
willows, and under the mere twilight of spiritual joy, is, 
that we keep at such a distance from the Cross, and the 
realities of eternity are kept at such a distance and for- 
gotten. In such a state of mind, our sky is dark and 
heavy ; the evidences of our interest in the divine favor 
are obscured ; power is given to our invisible enemies ; 
and we are left either to the experience of painful and 
morbid dejection, or to a presumption still more unholy 
and dangerous. Men there are, who " have just enough 
religion to spoil the world, but not enough to draw com- 
fort from God." The best part, even of the present life, 
escapes such a man. His path through the world is 
through a desert that has no outlet. He does not see 
the cool, green shade that lies beyond it, nor the clear 
streams that environ it. Even the flowers and fruits that 
bloom or ripen upon its surface, are blighted and turned 
to rottenness and ashes, like the fruit that grows upon 
the borders of the Dead Sea. It is the reproach of re- 
ligion that so many of its professors walk in darkness and 
see no light. The Saviour said to his disciples, " He 
that foUoweth after me shall not walk in darkness, but 
shall have the light of life." Tliat inward sadness of 
spirit, too often mistaken for piety, which discolors every- 
thing around us, despoils it of its charms, and spreads 
over the future a perspective of dark melancholy, has 
no sympathy with that <' righteousness, and peace ^ and 
joy in the Holy Ghost, ^^ which constitute the kingdom of 
God within the soul. If our minds are dfvrk and joyless. 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 315 

we must look for light and joy to things that have no 
place within this lower creation. The sources of light 
are not within us, but without us ; they are not around 
us, but above us. Nature herself teaches us this. This 
low world is illumined by suns, and moons, and stars 
beyond it. Light comes from above. It is so widely dif- 
fused, indeed, that we are often satisfied with its reflected 
rays, and do not look upward to its source. The green 
upon the leaves, and the golden tint upon the flowers, 
seem inherent in the leaf and flower. But when a veil 
is cast over the heavens, we look in vain for the bright 
hues which seemed to sparkle from every object around 
us. All is dark and cheerless, and we wait in anxious 
expectation until tlie cloud shall pass awa}'. The moral 
light, also, which beams upon the soul, is but the reflex 
light of heaven. If we would see it in its purity, we 
must look upward. The early Christians were joyful 
for the very reason that eternity was so real, so glorious, 
so near. And, therefere, they were not only comforted, 
but the comforters of millions. They vrere serene and 
peaceful, where we should be agitated and perplexed ; 
triumphant, where we should be cast down. Their dark- 
ness was turned into day, their mourning into rejoicing, 
their sighs into praise. What the contemplation of 
invisible and eternal realities did for them, it can do for 
all. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
ever. It was of these things that he had been speaking, 
when he said to them, what he still says to all who love 
him, " These things have I spoken unto you, that my 
joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be 
fulU' 

We may advert to the influence of the Cross, in the 
view in which we are now contemplating it, on the trials 
and ajjlictions of tlie Christian in the present world* There 



316 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

is no respite from trials this side the grave. Waves of 
sadness sometimes roll over the soul like a mighty ocean. 
Of this great community of griefs every Christian man 
forms a part. No piety, any more than any natural or 
acquired superiority of mind, can countervail them. Just 
as the strongest minds are sometimes the most miserable, 
so are the most heavenly minds sometimes subjected to 
the heaviest calamity. Tears are not less bitter to the 
child of God than to the man of the world ; nor are 
mortifications less humbling, nor pains less severe. It is 
in vain to hope that sadness will not mingle with his 
joys, and that the pensive murmur of grief, which it is 
impossible to stifle, will not escape him. Those to 
whom human life has been thus far summer and sun- 
shine, will find that cold frosts, if they have not nipped 
the blossoms of Spring, will blight the fruits of Autumn. 
These earthly hopes which now smooth their way through 
the dark wilderness of time, will ere long flit away like 
morning dreams. Men cannot become transformed into 
senseless statues ; nor can any earthly expedients disarm 
aflSiiction of its power. Native fortitude, and self-wrought 
calmness and resignation, are of little account. They 
may try to satisfy themselves that it is idle to grieve at 
what is inevitable, and they may aflfect or assume sto- 
icism, while their hearts are bleeding. They may try to 
drown trouble in pleasure and care, and amid the tumult 
of earth endeavor to forget what cannot be forgotten. 
But it is a poor relief from sorrow to fly to the distraction 
of the world. As well might a lost and wearied bird, sus- 
pended over the abyss of the tempestuous ocean, seek a 
resting-place on its topmost waves, as the child of sorrow 
seek a place of repose amid the bustling cares and intox- 
icating pleasures of earth and time. But what the things 
of time cannot accomplish, can be accomplished by the 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 3 17 

realities of eternity. Though they secure no exemption 
from trials, they arm the soul with power to meet and 
endure them. They reveal the moral causes which pro- 
duce them ; they discover the paternal love which dis- 
penses and directs them as acts of needful discipline ; 
they bring with them grace to help and to comfort in the 
time of need ; they give the assurance that " all things 
work together for good to them that love God ;" and 
they promise the happiest issue to them all. You have 
read of those who were " troubled on every side, but not 
distressed ; perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, 
but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed." Their 
reasoning is as cogent as it is spiritual, and comes home 
to every Christian bosom: ^^ For which cause we faint 
not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward 
man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, 
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we look 
not at the things that are seen^ but at the things that are 
not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the 
things that are not seen are eternal.^' The Jife and death 
of these noble men were a fitting exposition of sucli views. 
Poor as they were, they made many rich ; afflicted as 
they were, they gloried in tribulation ; dying as they did, 
their " life was hid with Christ in God." Oh, how eter- 
nal things light up the night of adversity ! how they pour 
their bright rays through the gratings of this dungeon 
world ! how they throw beauty over the azure sky ! how 
they make its dark clouds thin and transparent, when 
once we can look through them to the clear, blue 
heavens ! These " light afflictions " cannot endure long; 
they are " but for a moment." These swelling seas, 
these fierce winds and dark tempests, do but waft the 
immortal spirit over the sea of time. The child of sor- 



318 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

row looks to the hour when '^ the days of his mourning 
shall be ended." The prisoner longs for the light of 
day ; he pines for the hour which will set him at liberty; 
he makes welcome the stern, grim jailor that unbars his 
prison. Fearful thought were it, not to be able to look 
beyond the grave ! Dire shipwreck of human hopes, but 
for the hope of heaven realized at the Cross ! It is 
the balm of life — the spiritual talisman that charms its 
griefs. Like the look of the wounded Israelite to the 
brazen serpent in the wilderness, it heals his anguish. It 
is the great catholicon for human woes. Like the heav- 
enly form which ministered to the suffering Saviour in 
the garden, it points to the opening heavens while it pre- 
sents the bitter cup. In the severest trial, and the bitterest 
agony, eternal things become the most precious ; for it is 
then they become the most near, until, ceasing to be unseen 
and future, they open to the ravished spirit, thus progres- 
sively detached from earth and matured for heaven, that 
new world where faith is vision, and hope eternal joy. 

There is a single thought more. These views of 
the coming world, instituted at the Cross, impart to the 
Christian character its true energy and usefulness. There 
is a vast,, an indefinable chasm in that man's life who 
lives merely under the influence of time. It is the means 
and not the end which occupies him ; the voyage, and not 
the distant country. The world lies before him an un- 
certain, fluctuating ocean, upon which he is to sail a few 
restless years ; but he looks to no haven. All is a bubble 
which he is seeking, that does not terminate in eternity. 
The difference which exists between the sober and 
earnest pursuits of men and the sports of children^— their 
toys, their houses of cards, and their mimic castles — 
offers but a feeble analogy to the disproportion between 
those pursuits which relate to time, and those which have 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 319 

eternity for their object. It is not to be wondered at that, 
in the pursuits of this world, the passions of men, their 
fickleness and caprice, so often thwart their best-laid 
plans, and that so many of their wisest projects are foiled 
by irresolution and want of energy. What earthly af- 
fections are there that do not sink into insignificance 
before the contemplation of the vast interests of an exist- 
ence that can never end ? When that distinguished man, 
William Wilberforce, was requested by an intimate friend 
to furnish her with a single sentence in her album which 
might serve as the motto of her life, he took his pen and 
wrote, '' None of us liveth to him.self, and none of us 
dieth to himself; but whether we live, we live unto the 
Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; so that 
whether we live, or die, we are the Ijord's.'^ There are 
Christians who accomplish more for the cause of Christ, 
and the spiritual and everlasting good of their fellow-men, 
within the compass of a few short years, than others ac- 
complish in a long life. The cause of the difference is, 
the difference in their views and thoughts of invisible and 
eternal realities. The latter class move within a narrow 
sphere, and under scarcely any perceptible influence 
derived from the unseen world ; while the former go for- 
ward under the weight of truths which eternity alone can 
fully appreciate, and to occupy a sphere wide as the 
demands of a world that lieth in wickedness. Eternal 
things constitute the great principle and incitement to 
unwearied well-doing. They effect a revolution in the 
mind, and are destined to effect a revolution in the world. 
They run not in a single channel only, but immingle 
with all the streams that make glad the City of our 
God. 

It is when the thousands who are around us, and the 
millions on whom our influence may be indirectly exerted, 



320 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

are seen to be born for immortality, and destined to have 
a dwelling on one or the other of the outstretched con- 
tinents which mortal eyes do not behold, that the energy 
of those motives is felt which bring out and develop the 
power of true religion. Objects and ends everywhere 
multiply, then, that are worthy of toil, worthy of sacri- 
fices that seek no indemnity save in the benevolence they 
express and gratify, and in the approbation of the great 
Witness and Judge. You never heard a spiritual and 
heavenly-minded man " complain of checks or inter- 
ruptions to toil arising from his strongest impressions of 
things that are eternal." On the other hand, no difficul- 
ties discourage, no sloth ensnares, the man who looks not 
on the things that are seen. His powers of body and 
mind, his time, his influence, his property, which, when 
compared with the things of time, he husbands or with- 
holds, in view of eternity seem as dust in the balance. 
He gives them freely ; his only regret is that the offering 
is so poor and feeble. Had he crowns or kingdoms, or 
centuries instead of years, he would value them only to 
be consecrated to God. His benevolence is not a spirit 
that is inflated by the contemplation of its own imaginary 
excellence, and which finds its highest incitement in self- 
applause, or in the applause of his fellow-men ; rather 
does it seek concealment from the public eye; it is un- 
ostentatious and noiseless, and suffers no diminution when 
every earthly consideration is withdrawn. What will be 
seen to be most important when earthly things pass 
away, a due estimate of eternal realities regards as 
important now. The visible becomes, as it were, in- 
visible, just in the proportion in which the invisible 
becomes visible ; while in the same proportion in which 
the future becomes present, the present becomes like the 
forgotten past. 



THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 321 

Would that the mind, both of the reader and the writer, 
were more deeply imbued with these things ! That man 
has not a little to learn of the '' sin that dwelleth in 
him," who has not yet learned that the things of earth 
are a snare to the soul. All the tendencies of a nature 
so partially sanctified, are on the wrong side of the ques- 
tion, when the question is, this world, or the world to 
come. Oh, it is melancholy proof that our race is " ex- 
iled from heaven," that even good men find it so haz- 
ardous to come in contact with earth, and that, in so 
doing, so many are cast down and degraded below their 
high destiny ! Supreme in the hearts of wicked men, 
this love of earth is never wholly eradicated from the 
hearts even of the children of God. If you would have it 
more and more subdued, and brought into subjection to 
better hopes and principles, let it become more and more 
the confirmed habit of your minds to live near to the 
Cross, and there contemplate the things that are not seen. 
The dominion of earth and time is broken, only by estab- 
lishing within the soul the empire of the Cross — the 
empire of heaven and eternity. " Set your affections, 
therefore, not on things that are on the earth, but on things 
that are above, where Jesus Christ sitteth at the right 
hand of God." Rest not until you are enabled to look 
more within the veil, and fix your hearts more steadfastly 
on the only permanent realities in the universe. Retire 
within the chambers of your own mind, and there con- 
template them in those hours of secret and solemn thought, 
where the unseen One so often speaks to the soul. Go 
to God's word, and you will find them there, in new and 
endless combinations, and the more you inspect their 
beauty and explore their fullness, the more will you per- 
ceive their ten thousand rays of light, all shooting upward, 
and guiding you to immortality. When you go to the 
14* 



322 THE WORLD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 

throne of grace, too, you will find them there, where you 
may have sensible intercourse with the Father of lights, 
and where, instead of becoming secularized with the 
world, you may breathe the atmosphere of heaven. In 
the sanctuary of God you have been wont to find them 
in all its instructions, all its prayers, and all its praise. 
But above all, and first of all, if you would behold them 
as they are revealed to men who are benighted and apos- 
tate, seek them at the Cross of Christ. Look, and learn 
of eternal things that which can be seen and learned only 
there. '' I came forth from the Father," said that cru- 
cified One, '^ and am come into the world : again I leave 
the world, and go to the Father." There is '' God mani- 
fest in the flesh ;" there is heaven come down to earth ; 
there is eternity in time. And there may mortal, sinning 
man behold eternal things as reflected from a mirror ; 
and there, beholding them, be himself " changed into 
the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit 
of the Lord." 

Ye sons of earth and time, too, what think ye of these 
attractions of the Cross 1 Why should ye banish from 
your thoughts those living and permanent realities of 
which you yourselves will so soon form a part '? It were 
enough to rebuke, and diminish, and put to shame this 
absorbing love of earth, that it urges its claims from no 
good end, and allures that it may destroy. It were the 
worst of deaths to be dead to the worthy, and alive to 
the worthless ; alive only to time, and dead to eternity. 
Forget not, I beseech you, that you are on the race-course 
for an immortal crown ; and if the world bowls its golden 
fruit across your path, stop not to gather its glittering 
spoil. There is no annihilation beyond the grave — there 
is no end to eternity ; yet are you hastening toward it 
as the eagle hasteth to her prey. Man lives in the con- 



THE WOULD CRUCIFIED BY THE CROSS. 323 

tinual certainty that he must die. He cannot forget it ; 
he cannot banish it ; he cannot take a step but death 
meets him ; he sees him draAv nigh with sure approach. 
We are content to learn many things in the present world 
from experience ; but it is hazardous to wait for the expe- 
rience of eternity. " Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap." Lost opportunity cannot be redeemed 
there. Abused Sabbaths will not there return. A re- 
jected Saviour will not there be offered. An aggrieved 
Spirit will not there seek to win the soul to repentance. 
Esau " found no place for repentance, though he sought 
it carefully and with tears." Many is the man who has 
uttered the mournful thought, too late for the loss to be 
repaired, "Oh, how have I hated instruction and despised 
reproof!" The well-known exclamation of Titus is an 
affecting tribute of the regret of an amiable mind over 
lost opportunity. The Roman Prince had hopes of the 
morrow before him — hopes of making good his loss. 
But in what tones will they utter it to whom no morrow 
remains! What a fearful exclamation, then, " Perdidi 
diem !" — vitam perdidi ! The die is cast; the day of life 
is over and eternity begun ! A lost day, a lost opportunity, 
a lost year, a lost life, a lost soul, where '^ there is no 
work, nor knowledge, nor device " — how imperious the 
call to '^ live well and live for eternity';" to " work while 
it is day, because the night cometh in which no man can 
work !" Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now 
is the day of salvation ! Defer not, till the bitter lamen- 
tation shall be wrung from your bosoms, " The harvest 
is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved !" 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

The subject on which we propose to submit a few 
thoughts in the present chapter, is one which is intimately- 
connected with the great principles of Christian doctrine 
and practice. It is, the subserviency of all things to the Cross 
of Christ, I say, the subserviency of all things ; and by 
this I mean to express the thought which the words liter- 
ally convey. There is nothing within the compass of the 
created universe, which is not directly or indirectly, vol- 
untarily or by coercion, made tributary to the great work 
of Christ. He is the master-spirit of the whole — the all- 
presiding Deity. '^ As in great maps or pictures you will 
see the border decorated with meadows, fountains and 
flowers represented on it, but in the middle you have the 
main design — so among the works of God is it with the 
fore-ordained redemption of man. All his other works 
in the world — all the beauty of the creatures, the succes- 
sion of ages, and the things that come to pass in them, are 
but as the border to this main piece. But as a foolish and 
unskillful beholder, not discerning the excellency of the 
principal piece in such maps or pictures, gazes only on 
the fair border, and goes no further — thus do the greatest 
part of us to this great work of God, the redemption of 
our personal being, the re-union of the human with the 
divine, by and through the Divine Humanity of the 
Incarnate Word." 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 325 

It is according to the dictates of divine wisdom to give 
preeminence to some one design. The ways of God often 
appear complicated and embarrassed, because they are 
so many, because they are comprised in so many different 
departments, and because, to superficial observers, the 
great end and object of them is overlooked. Not a few 
of them are inscrutable, and men are confounded by 
them. They are like the Prophet's vision of the cheru- 
bim : '' as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel ; 
as for their wings, they are so high that they are dread- 
ful." The unity of the divine government results from 
the unity of its design. The Prophet saw in his vision 
of the cherubim, that, while they looked different ways, 
" every one went straight forward ; whither the spirit 
was to go they went, and they turned not when they 
went." Various and apparently complicated as are the 
works of God, they are not wrought at random. There 
is no sameness ; no two lines of them are perfectly par- 
allel ; while amid all this inconceivably rich variety, 
they have one great object, and are all one in design. 
There is nothing incongruoiis, nothing exuberant; and 
such is their adjustment to each other, and to the great 
end they aim at, that we cannot fail to see that they all 
originate in infinite wisdom, and that " the sphit of the 
living creature is in the wheels." The wisdom of God is 
that attribute by which he forms the best designs, and the 
best means of carrying them into execution. It would 
naturally give preeminence to some one great design 
above another, unless all his designs were of equal import- 
ance, and no one was actually to be preferred to another. 
All his designs are important in their place, and none of 
them can be dispensed with ; but we see, in fact, that they 
are not all equally important. His purpose to create a 
pebble was not so important as his purpose to create an 



326 ALL THINGS TRIBUTAllY TO THE CROSS. 

intellectualj moral being, and one born for immortality. 
It is therefore in accordance with the divine wisdom to 
give pre'eminence to some one great design above an- 
other, and above all others. His goodness, his wisdom, 
his power, his high regard for himself, and his own 
honor, are the best pledge that, in laying out his plans, he 
has given the most important the first and highest place. 
Now the work of redemption is God^s most important 
work, and, in itself, worthy to be subserved by everything 
that he has made. It is a design which was very early 
formed, and, in all its parts and comprehensiveness, was 
spread out in his own mind before the foundation of the 
world. He did not form it for any other reasons than 
those which existed within his own bosom. Though we 
may not limit the divine wisdom, we do not see that it 
derogates from it to say, that the method of redemption 
by his Son is his greatest and best work. He himself 
declares that principalities and powers in heavenly places 
discover in it the '' manifold wisdom of God." Other 
designs he has formed, and other works he has wrought, 
which are ''very good," and worthy of their author ; but 
none of them can be compared with this. For tliese six 
thousand years, has it been the object of thought and in- 
spection ; the purest and most exalted minds in the 
universe have been looking into it; and the more they 
have done so, the more has it excited their admiration, 
and drawn forth their ascriptions of praise. God him- 
self has not seen fit to alter or modify it, because he has 
never discovered in it the least defect or imperfection. It 
is great and important enough to be his leading purpose, 
and to lie at the foundation of all his purposes. It con- 
tains ineffably '' wondrous things." There is no other 
work of God so good, so great, so all-comprehensive, as 
this. It comprises more of God himself than any other 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 327 

of the productions of his infinite mind. It is the ap- 
pointed means and medium by which his ineffable great- 
ness and goodness are manifested before all worlds. We 
wonder and adore, and cover our faces at the view it 
furnishes of the infinite and ever-blessed God. The more 
we study it, the more do we see that it is full of God, and 
that its great object and aim are to give " glory to God in 
the highest." Comprising, as it does, so much of God 
himself, it necessarily comprises all his truth. It is the 
great witness and the great expression of all religious 
truth ; and its lessons stand forth before the universe as 
the most complete, and at the same time the most bril- 
liant and enduring system of belief ever revealed, or ever 
to be revealed hereafter. It comprises also more of holi- 
ness than is comprised in any other work of the great 
First Cause. To men it is the only means of holiness, 
and reveals the only agency by which holiness is secured 
and extended, and perpetuated on earth. ^' It hath 
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." 
The influence that illuminates, elevates and sanctifies 
the human mind is all from this source. Here are the 
wisdom that guides, and the grace that sustains ; here 
are the kindlings of its love, the meltings of its penitence, 
the vigor of its faith, the energy of its hope, and the 
strength and firmness of its principles and rectitude. The 
highest orders of intelligence in the universe receive new 
views of God and truth through Christ : their consequent 
knowledge of his work, and subjection to his authority, 
are the brightest adornments of their character. And 
because this redemption is thus preeminent in such in- 
fluences, it is preeminent in securing and advancing the 
happiness of the holy universe. Whatever comprises 
most of God, of truth, of rectitude, by an unchanging 
law of the divine kingdom comprises most of happiness. 



328 AL^ THINGS* TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

For this fallen world, we know there had been nothing 
but the wrath and curse of God — nothing but the black- 
ness of darkness — nothing but despair and wailing, but 
for the Cross. The vast aggregate of happiness enjoyed 
by the unnumbered millions of mankind, through all the 
ages of time, and the interminable ages of the future — a 
blessedness greater than that to which man could have 
aspired in his primeval integrity, and which immaculate 
innocence merely could never attain — has its origin and 
aliment only in Christ's redemption. Such a work de- 
serves to hold the highest place, and make everything 
tributary to its claims and objects. It is a most wonder- 
ful work. Travel through all the works of God, and, if 
it were possible, travel through all eternity, and you will 
find no such work of God as this mystery of man's 
redemption. To make this great work subordinate to 
any other, were to make the greater subservient to the 
less — were to make the sun eclipsed by the morning star. 
In addition to this, it should also be remarked, that the 
Saviour himself, the great Author and Finisher of this 
redemption, deserves the high honor of making everything 
subservient to the great work which, at so much sacrifice, 
he has undertaken to perform. This thought commends 
itself to every mind to whom the Saviour is precious. He 
deserves this high honor from his character as " God 
manifest in the flesh;" as " Immanuel, God with us.*' 
Correct views of his personal glory are essential to all 
right apprehensions of his official character and claims as 
the great Mediator. It is as the God-man that he is the 
Author and Finisher of the work of redemption, and it 
is in this character that he deserves the prerogative of 
presiding over and directing all things with a view to 
that spiritual kingdom for which he laid down his life. 
His condescension, sacrifices and sorrows, invest him with 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 329 

the right and title to all things as the Sovereign of a holy 
and happy kingdom. He stood pledged to this great 
work, cost him what it might, and he met the exigencies 
of it as they arose, with a firmness, a zeal and ardor, a 
constancy and self-devotement, that remained unabated 
and unrelaxed, until he '' poured out his soul unto 
death." And for this wondrous service, God engaged to 
give him the crown which he so dearly purchased. When 
the service was completed, he actually awarded it to 
him ; expressly '' appointed him the heir of all things ;^^ 
'' set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 
far above all principality and poiver, and might and do- 
minion, not only in this world, but also in that which is 
to come ; and put all things under his feet, and gave him 
to be Head over all things to the church.^^ He obtained 
his official ascendancy for stipulated services — services 
that deserve such a reward, and entitled him " in all 
things to have the preeminence.^^ God the Father distinctly 
recognizes this claim. '^ Who, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God : made him- 
self of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a 
servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; and being 
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. 
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given 
him a name that is above every name ; that at the name 
of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 
things in the earth, and things under the earth; and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
the glory of God the Father." This deserved preemi- 
nence of Christ can scarcely escape the notice even of 
the most cursory reader of the Bible. " All things are 
put under him," with the single exception of "Him who 
put all things under him." This is the glorious exalta- 



330 -'^LL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

tion which he now enjoys, and the delightful subservi- 
ency of all things to him, for what he is, and for what 
he has done and suffered for man's redemption. 

To this it may be added, iheit without this subserviency, 
it would be impossible that the work of redemption could 
he 'perfected. This work itself bears such a relation to 
every part of the divine government, and wears such a 
diversified aspect toward every being, every occurrence, 
and every object in the universe, that it cannot be com- 
pleted, unless Jesus Christ so controls them all, that 
each, according to its various nature and fitness, shall be 
made to subserve its purposes. The whole plan was 
formed with a view to this universal control, and cannot 
be carried into effect without it. The Mediator must 
have recourse to this authority, or the objects of his me- 
diation can never be secured. If there be a mind in the 
universe he does not govern, an event he does not over- 
rule, a particle of matter he does not direct, who does not 
see that he has no security that that mind, that event, and 
that particle of matter, might fail to answer the ends for 
which it was created, and defeat his purposes of mercy ? 
If it is necessary that anything should be made subservi- 
ent to these purposes, it is necessary that all things should 
be so. If it is necessary that all things as a whole, and 
collectively, be thus controlled, it is necessary that every 
particular thing and all the parts be thus controlled. 
Joseph's dream was as truly tributary to the great work 
of redemption, as the removal of Jacob and his family 
into Egypt. The personal beauty of Esther was as truly 
tributary to it, as the deliverance of the Jewish nation 
from a general massacre. The advancement of Nehe- 
miah to the court of Artaxerxes was as truly tributary to 
it, as the restoration of the visible church of God from 
its captivity in Babylon. Nor would it be possible for 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 33 1 

this redemption to be brought to its glorious issues, and 
all the glory of it ascribed to its great Author, unless he 
is above all that which may, either designedly or unde- 
signedly, oppose, counteract or frustrate it, unless in some 
way he makes everything instrumental in accomplishing 
this glorious design. 

But let us proceed to illustrate this position by the induc- 
tion of several particulars. Where shall we go to find an 
exception to the things which Christ does not govern and 
control for the sake of his church 1 In what world is that 
exception to be found 1 what height, what depth does it 
occupy 1 in what creature does it dwell ? 

Look to this material creation. Whose is it? and for 
whom and for what was it called into being ? The 
redemption by Christ Jesus was not devised for the earth 
we dwell in ; but the earth we occupy was planned and 
called into being, for this more wonderful redemption. 
The Author of redemption w^as its Author. By him and 
for him it was formed ; nor would it ever have been called 
into existence, but to be the theatre of his redeeming 
mercy. When the " heavens were prepared, and a com- 
pass was set upon the face of the deep, he was there, 
rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and his 
delights were with the sons of men." The world of 
matter was formed for the world of mind. Matter is dead 
and powerless, and, but for its subserviency to higher and 
nobler interests, were a useless thing. Its true import- 
ance and value are learned only by ascending from its 
gross and palpable forms to those causes which govern it, 
and those ends for which it is governed. The vast 
extent of this material creation, its wonderful variety, 
its majesty and beauty, its waters and its solid land, its 
light and darkness, its suns and storms, its seasons and 
its fertility, its laws and its revolutions, so much the 



332 -^LL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

objects of our admiration and wonder, are all under the 
control of the Lord Jesus, sustained by him, and directed 
by him, and all its wonderful resources are employed by 
him, to answer the purposes of his redeeming wisdom 
and love. If his church needs it, he holds back the flow- 
ing tide of its rushing waters, that she may pass through 
on dry land. If the interests of his kingdom require it, 
the sun stands still in the heavens, while the enemies of 
this kingdom are slain. Not only are the laws by which 
the earth turns on its axis arrested at his will, but the 
shadow goes back on the dial, that the message of his 
prophet may be fulfilled. Rain and hail, fire and vapor, 
fulfill his word. Throughout all this wide dominion of 
nature, he is the acknowledged sovereign, and rules in 
order to secure and advance the great designs of grace. 
Suns shine, and systems revolve, and the bounds of the 
people are fixed, according to the provisions of his cove- 
nant of peace. He hung the earth upon nothing, that it 
became his cradle. He stretched out the heavens that 
they might bear witness to his humiliations, and enjoy 
his triumphs. He enriches by his bounty and beautifies 
by his smiles, and makes sublime and awful by his power, 
all his manifold works, that they may be instrumental in 
advancing his glory, and become vocal with his praise. 
<' The several creatures bear their part in this; the sun 
says somewhat, and the moon and stars, yea, the lowest 
have some share in it." Infidels have more than once 
impugned the scriptural account of the material crea- 
tion, because they have severed it from that greater work 
which unlocks all its mysteries. " Lord God, how 
great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep; a 
brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool consider 
this." Slow of heart are they to believe, who, with 
theBi* le in their hands, have not learned that every page 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 333 

in the book of nature repeats some lesson from the Cross. 
From the dark chaos to this finished and beautiful world, 
everything was originally arranged for the promotion of 
this great design. From the first anthem of those morn- 
ing stars who sang together, down to the voice of the 
archangel and the trump of God, every sound in the 
material universe is in unison with the ascription, '' Of 
him, and through him, and to him are all things !" And 
when his great work is finished, and all his redeemed ones 
are gathered in, then shall these heavens pass away with 
a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, 
and tlie earth shall be burnt up. 

From the material, look now to the intellectual creation, 
composed as it is of the unf alien and fallen angels, and of 
good and bad men. Inspect the whole of it. If Jesus 
Christ makes this world of matter subserve his redemp- 
tion, much more does he thus govern and overrule the 
intellectual beings that occup}' it. Of the angels that 
are unfallen, the Word of God furnishes us with the most 
explicit information relating to the part they sustain in 
carrying forward the Saviour's designs. They tell us of 
an "innumerable compan}'^ of angels," of "cherubim 
and seraphim," of " thrones and dominions," of " prin- 
cipalities and powers ;" while they teach us that these 
"things in heaven" are all "gathereJ toirether in 
Christ," subject to his dominion, and "swift to do his 
will, hearkening to the voice of his word." At his bid- 
ding, they come down to tliis world on errands of mercy, 
and on errands of judgment; while they are " all min- 
istering spirits sent forth to juinister to them that shall 
be heirs of salvation.^' They appeared to Abraham on 
the plains of Mamre ; to Lot to hasten liim out of Sodom ; 
to Isaiah when he spake of His glory who was to come; 
to Zacharias, to Mary, to the shepherds of Bethlehem, 



334 ALL THINGS TlllBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

to the agonizing Saviour in the garden. They were the 
witnesses of his resurrection ; attended him in his triumph- 
ant departure from earth, and his more triumphant en- 
trance into heaven ; and at his second coming all the 
holy angels shall be with him to augment his splendor, 
and fulfill the high commands of his throne. Of the 
angels that are fallen we can only say that they are made 
subservient to the work of redemption, not willingly, but 
by constraint. In every house there are vessels of honor 
and vessels of dishonor. The kingdom of Christ is 
erected on the ruins of the fall, out of low and base 
materials : there are departments of it which must be 
purified and cleansed in ways in which none but fallen, 
filthy spirits can be employed. To give them the oppor- 
tunity of acting out their own impure and filthy nature, 
Jesus Christ makes use of them to defeat their own pur- 
poses and accomplish his. He permitted them to seduce 
our first parents, that he might ''make a show of the 
powers of darkness openly, and triumph over them." 
Satan's power was great which he thus erected on human 
crime ; it was the reign of sin. And the reason why 
Christ permitted him to erect it was, to show that his own 
power was greater, and to make it subserve his reign of 
grace. Christ and his kingdom have suflfered temporarily 
from the malice of fiends, and still suffer ; but he is 
above them, and turns all their malice to good account. 
It is among the more resplendent glories of his throne, 
that he wrests the sceptre from their grasp, and awards 
them a more signal defeat for all their hostility. Nor do 
we need a more impressive exemplification of this truth, 
than that, at the very ''hour and power of darkness" 
when all the hosts of hell were summoned against him, 
and every art was tried, and all their malice raged, and 
they had actually coiupasscd his death, unwittingly they 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 335 

Struck the blow which crushed the serpent's head. From 
that day to this, he has not only been limiting and coun- 
teracting their influence, but overruling it for their loss 
and his gain, for their shame and his triumph, for their 
misery and his and his people's everlasting joy. To say that 
good men are subservient to this redemption is a truism 
which needs no illustration ; for they are its objects as 
well as its subjects. They are said to be " in Christ," 
to '' suffer with him," to be '' crucified with him," to 
''die with him," to ''rise with him," to be "glorified 
together with him." He it is that secures the energy, 
and gives a consistent development, a growing ascend- 
anc}^, a final triumph, to their every gracious principle 
and affection, and imparts to them those supplies of the 
Holy Spirit by which their spiritual life is sustained, ma- 
tured, and perfected. There is nothing they recognize 
more implicitly and more gratefully than the importance 
of their relation to him as their vital Head. This gracious 
union is indissoluble by any of the circumstances by which 
it may be threatened, and is eminently conducive to the 
promotion of those great purposes for which, from eternity, 
he resolved to redeem a church from among men. They 
are one in him, as well as one with him. He is the 
centre and bond of their unity. They are found in dif- 
ferent lands and in different nations ; some of them are 
glorified in heaven, and some are militant on the earth ; 
but they are all one body, of which he is the glorified and 
reigning Head. " None of us liveth to himself, and no 
man dieth to himself; but whether we live, we live unto 
tlie Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. 
For to this end Christ both died and rose, that he miglit 
be Lord both of the dead and .the living." When at tlie 
last day he shall surrender the mediatorial trust, all \\u 
people shall be found gathered together in one body, and 



336 ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

be presented " complete in him." And all this takes 
place in pursuance of the comprehensive design, that ** in 
the dispensation of the fullness of times he would gather 
together in one all things in Christ." 

That bad men subserve the interests of Christ's kingdom 
is not owing to them, but to him. '' They mean not so, 
neither in their heart do they think so." Still they do 
it, and often most effectually. The antediluvian world 
did, when they built the ark ; Joseph's brethren did, when 
they sold him into Egypt ; the Assyrian Sennacherib did;^ 
when he invaded Judea ; the Jews did, when they deliv- 
ered the Son of God to be crucified ; and Pilate and Herod 
did, when they condemned and executed him. So did 
Titus when he besieged Jerusalem ; and Tetzel, by the 
sale of indulgences ; and James, by his severity toward 
the English Puritans ; and the demon of persecution, by 
the blood of the martyrs. Many a time has God em- 
ployed ambitious conquerors for the diffusion of his Gos- 
pel ; the tyranny of despots to give liberty to his people; 
the pride of science to give knowledge of salvation ; the 
enterprise and economy of the covetous to horde up trea- 
sures for his cause and kingdom ; and the " wrath of man 
to praise the Lord." "Where he does not thus overrule 
the wickedness of men, he restrains it ; and when their 
course is finished, he hurls them from the pinnacle of 
their glory to the dust, and by all the triumphs of his jus- 
tice over his enemies signalizes the still greater triumphs 
of his grace toward his friends. 

What is the Providence of God but the execution of 
this great purpose of redemption ? If we trace the prom 
inent events in the history of the world, f om the first 
apostacy to the present hour, we see that the great out- 
lines of the divine government, and the issues of all the 
great movements of his providence, have had but this 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 337 

common centre, and this commanding object. It is truly 
wonderful to reflect on the events that have taken place, 
and the changes tliat have been brought about, for 
advancing the kingdom of Christ in the world. Men 
have been called into existence for no other purpose than 
this. For this kings have been enthroned, and dethroned; 
nations have been born, and destroyed. ^' I will give 
men for thee," says God to his church, '^ and people for 
thy life. I gave Egypt for thy ransom ; Ethiopia and 
Seba for thee." The kingdom of providence is the the- 
atre of the most wonderful and magnificent operations ; 
and they are all made tributary to the kingdom of Christ. 
The more minuteh' they are inspected, the more clearly 
will they be found to develop some important feature in 
the method of redeeming mercy. It is often matter of 
admiration to us that so many and so important events 
take place in such rapid succession ; that so many are 
brought about by the most unexpected and unnoticed 
instrumentality; so many that are apparently casual and 
contingent ; while in some of its unseen and unnumbered 
influences, the Cross is exerting its attractions upon them 
all. Latent springs are in operation that are too nice and 
delicate to be adjusted by the human mind, and that are 
directed only by infinite wisdom. The infinite Redeemer, 
everywhere present, and coming, as it were, in contact 
with all the aflTairs of this world, is giving them a direc- 
tion with his own mighty and invisible hand. It is very 
diflScult for a Christian to give any account of innumera- 
ble events which have taken place, and are continually 
taking place, without tracing them up to their designed 
subserviency to the Cross. We may account for some 
links in the chain, but the chain itself terminates at the 
Cross. Just as certainly as all finite things and all finite 
minds are under the direction of the Infinite, are they all 
15 



338 ■A'LL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

made to concentrate in this great and comprehensive 
counsel. This wonderful design diffuses itself every- 
where, and grasps everything. It has unmeasured pleni- 
tude, and is the " fullness of Him who filleth all in all." 
It is severed from nothing. While it connects with it the 
whole material and intellectual universe, it binds to it in 
close and intimate relations all the movements of both. 
Though not a few of them may be dissimilar in their 
nature, and in their tendencies uncongenial, the God of 
Providence lays them all under contribution to the " riches 
of his glory in Christ Jesus," and makes them all speak 
forth his praises. Go where you will, and you will see 
results which but for him had never been known — results 
which will forever be viewed with increasing interest 
from the relation they bear to his Cross. 

How unquestionable, then, is the truth that a sad defeat 
awaits the expectations of those who hope to prosper in 
their hostility to the kingdom of Christ ! It cannot be 
otherwise than that they shall be put to shame. This 
great Saviour shall rule even in the midst of his enemies. 
He has them in his power, because God has given him 
power over all flesh. If you are his enemy, let it not be 
forgotten that your being and well-being are dependent 
on his will. Your respite from the condemning sentence 
depends solely on his pleasure ; and when his purposes 
are answered, you will be taken by his unseen hand, and 
ensnared and broken. He limits, and restrains, and 
controls the influence you are exerting against him, and 
is even now making it subserve his great design. It is a 
most mistaken policy to set yourself against the Lord 
and against his Christ; because, without destroying your 
accountability, or interfering with your freedom, he 
makes all your conduct subservient to the accomplish- 
ment of his own counsels. It is as though the instru- 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTART TO THE CROSS. 339 

ment should rebel against him that wields it ; ''as if the 
rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or the 
staff should lift up itself against him, as if it were no 
wood !" He is now seeking your salvation ; but if you 
still oppose and rebel, instead of convincing and convert- 
ing you, he will confound and destroy you. Honor him 
you must, either by cheerfully submitting to the power 
of his grace, or being made to submit to the severity of 
his justice. 

But the main thought of the present chapter is fraught 
more with consolation than with rebuke. It is altogether 
from a mistaken view of God's providence that those 
who have an interest in this redemption sink in depres- 
sion and despondency, either on their own account, or on 
account of Zion's calamity. There cannot be a source of 
higher exultation than that Jesus Christ is '' Head over 
all things to his church." Whatever is tributary to the 
interests of his kingdom, is tributary to the highest inter- 
ests of all those who comprise it. Come what will, they 
are safe, they are happy. '' Neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Christian's 
highest interests are bound up in that redemption to 
which everything in the universe is made subservient. 
No envenomed dart can reach him that does not first 
strike the heart of his divine Lord, there lose its sting, 
and thence be turned back on the foe. His severest afflic- 
tions are to be numbered among his choicest mercies, and 
as certainly subserve his welfare as they do the kingdom 
of his adorable Master. '' All things are yours ; whether 
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or 
death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours, 



340 ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 

and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." The bond 
which unites the believer to Christ is an impervious shield 
against every enemy and evil. Tribulation may come ; 
those he loves, and whom Jesus loves, may die and be 
gathered home ; death may invade his own pillow, and 
he may dwell beneath the clods of the valley ; but his 
flesh shall rest in hope, and because Jesus lives he shall 
live also. " All things," be they what they may, and 
where they may, light and darkness, joy and sorrow, 
good and evil, friends and foes, though often by wonder- 
ful combinations and contrast, '' work together for good 
to them that love God." If the omniscient Saviour 
knows how to promote their highest and holiest happi- 
ness ; if the gracious Saviour is disposed to do this ; if 
there is no restraint upon his power, and the omnipotent 
Saviour is able to bring about a result so glorious ; then 
have his people the assurance that he will bring good out 
of evil, and light out of darkness, and may '' cast their 
care upon him, knowing that he careth for them." 
"Dominion is with him!" His "eyes run to and fro 
throughout the earth, to show himself strong in behalf 
of those whose heart is perfect toward him." Jesus 
reigns, and let the earth rejoice ! 

It is delightful also to have the confidence, that the 
great work of redemption, in the hands of the gracious 
Dispenser of the New Covenant, will be crowned with 
success. Because all things are subjected to Christ, he 
will not fail to make them all tributar)^ to his kingdom. 
It will hold on its course, and will ultimately receive both 
the reluctant and the willing homage of the whole creation. 
We cannot have a surer guaranty of its universal ascend- 
ancy, than the truth we have been considering. It will 
reign triumphantly over the world, and all will honor 
the Son, even as they honor the Father who sent him. 



ALL THINGS TRIBUTARY TO THE CROSS. 341 

His Gospel shall be everywhere proclaimed ; his Spirit 
shall be sent down to dwell with men ; and Christ shall 
be all in all. Great holiness and great happiness shall 
bless mankind, because the King of Zion is the King of 
the universe. He shall '^ create Jerusalem a rejoicing 
and his people a joy ;" and " he shall rejoice in Jerusa- 
lem and joy in his people, and the voice of weeping shall 
no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying." All 
that is written of the truth of Christianity, and the power 
of godliness, and the glory of the Son, shall then be veri- 
fied. The earth shall become his temple, consecrated 
by his presence, bright with his glory, and filled with his 
praise. '' Every creature which is in heaven, and on 
the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the 
sea," shall then be heard, '' saying. Blessing and honor, 
and glory and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and to the Lamb forever ! And the four living 
creatures shall say, Amen ! And the four-and-twenty 
elders shall fall down and worship Him that liveth for- 
ever and ever !" 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE CROSS THE ADMIRATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 

The Cross of Christ furnishes a subject of interesting 
contemplation, most certainly, to men. But there are 
other intelligent beings in the universe beside the inhabit- 
ants of this lower world. While the lights of science 
furnish strong presumptive evidence of the existence of 
other systems in addition to those mentioned in the Scrip- 
tures, yet are we warranted in saying that their existence 
is a mere theory, and one which, however probable, may 
not be numbered among well -ascertained realities. As 
believers in a supernatural revelation, we are specially 
concerned to know only those worlds which have been, 
and are still, and forever will be, more or less affected by 
that great remedial economy, redemption by the Cross. 
These are composed of this earthy which is the residence 
of men ; of the Heaven where Jesus Christ dwells, which 
is the residence of unfallen angels, and of the spirits of 
just men made perfect; and of Hell^ the everlasting 
abode of the angels who are fallen, and of that portion 
of the human race who live and die without God and 
without hope. 

How the Cross affects the character and condition of 
the inhabitants of this earth we have already seen. Its 
influence upon the divine government over the inhabit- 
ants of the world of darkness is, in one respect, lenient, 



THE CROSS THE ADiUFLATION, &c. 343 

and in another severely just. Its lenity is felt in the 
mitigated punishment of the devils and the damned, 
undl the judgment of the Great Day ; and its just severity, 
in their augmented punishment after that last day of 
time. The devil and his angels now roam over this 
earth in unseen forms, " seeking whom they may de- 
vour ;*' and in this liberty, they have some respite 
from the sufferings which they will endiu-e hereafter, 
only through the infiuence of the Cross. Nor will wicked 
men, who are now, and who will hereafter become, in- 
habitants of the world of darkness, endure the full 
measure of suffering that awaits them until after the 
resurrection, when both soul and body '• go away into 
everlasting punishment." These features of the divine 
government toward the inhabitants of the world of per- 
dition, are no doubt modified by the Cross, and are the 
necessary accompaniments of the divine procedure in car- 
rving into effect his designs of mercy towcird his church. 
Xor will they assume the form of perfect and unmitigated 
justice, until the mediatorial kingdom of the Son is 
brought to an end, and all his enemies are subdued under 
his feet. Whether the region of the reprobate is affected 
in any other way by the Cross, we do not know, and 
have no curiosity to inquire. It is a dreadful world now, 
and it will be still more dreadful after that despised 
Saviour shall have come in his glory, with all the holy 
angels with him, and, in obedience to his resistless man- 
date, legions of devils and multitudes of our fallen race 
shall enter their gloomy prison, and he **that shutteth 
and no man openeth," shall shut its doors, and they 
'' shall go no more out!" 

There is another class of beings who contemplate the 
Cross with deep emotion. I mean those pure and celes- 
tial spirits which the Scriptures call angels ; those crea- 



344 THE CROSS THE ADxMIRATION 

tures of God who still retain their primeval integrity. 
The number of these exalted intelligences is not known 
to us ; though, from several hints in the Word of God, 
we have reason to believe it is very great, if not greater 
than all the tribes of men. With their character w^e are 
better acquainted. Created in the image of God, that 
image remains in all its loveliness, untarnished by sin, 
and resplendent in all the beauties of holiness. The fac- 
ulties and powers of their minds act in due and uniform 
subordination to each other ; nor has this order ever been 
confounded, or this harmony disturbed. Their under- 
standings are clear, and they never grope in darkness, 
because they have never been alienated from the life of 
God, himself the eternal source of light and truth. Their 
conscience has never gone astray, because their sense of 
right and wrong has never been violated. Their affec- 
tions are pure, and unmingled by any base alloy. As 
they look back, they have nothing to regret ; and, as they 
look forward, they have nothing to fear. They are called 
'' holy angels," and " elect angels," because, when those 
of their number who kept not their first estate, involved 
themselves in ruin by wilful rebellion, they stood fast and 
firm, and were confirmed in holiness and happiness forever. 
They are styled '' spirits," because, though probably not 
pure and uncompounded spirits like the Deity, they are 
strangers to all that is gross and earthl}^, and subsist in an 
element where spiritual bodies alone subsist. They are 
exalted above men in the rank of intelligent existences, 
for we are told that man was made loAver than they. They 
are distinguished for wonderful powers, wonderful activity, 
and unexampled obedience ; for the Scriptures inform us 
'^ that they excel in strength, that he maketh his angels 
spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire ;" and that they 
*' are swift to do his will, heai-kening to the voice of his 



OF THE UNIVERSE. 345 

word." As they possess the highest and most g-lorioiis 
created nature, so they occupy the highest station occu- 
pied by creatures, and have their fixed habitation in that 
world where God dwells in glory, and where the God- 
man ascended when he went up on high. Their em- 
ployment is the most exalted employment. They ''stand 
in the presence of God ;" they minister to him in the 
high services of his Holy Temple ; and when they exe- 
cute his commissions toward this world, the sons of men 
are filled with consternation and horror, or the earth is 
lightened at their glory, as they come on errands of judg- 
ment, or errands of mercy. 

We may not wander into the regions of conjecture, 
when illustrating the truth of God : it is for the most 
part forbidden us; and, like the tree of knowledge rudely 
invaded by our first parents, the fruit we pluck from it 
gives us more experience of evil than of good. It would, 
however, be but following out the analogy of the divine 
government, to adopt the supposition that the entire 
angelic race, like the race of men, were originally placed 
in a state of probation for a limited time, and in view of 
some well-known test of obedience. Like all moral 
beings, they must necessarily have held their existence 
under law. Their exalted rank and character did not 
free them from the bonds of moral obligation ; the will 
of God was the rule of their duty, and their disobedience 
would have been crime and perdition. It were in per* 
feet keeping with several intimations in the New Testa- 
ment, that the test of their obedience was the same which 
now constitutes the test of ours, and that is, the Cross of 
Christ. When God created man, it might have seemed 
to angels that he created a rival race. Though formed 
out of the dust of the ground, he was made lord of this 
lower creation, and evidently destined to some high and 
15* 



346 THE CROSS THE ADMIRATION 

exalted sphere. When the purpose was disclosed, that 
one of the descendants of this newly-created race should 
be advanced to the honor of becoming the Son of God ; 
that in the fullness of time the human nature should be 
united to the second person in the adorable Trinity ; that 
all things in heaven and on earth should be given into 
his hands ; that all the angels of God must worship him 
and acknowledge him as their Lord ; and that it should 
be the prescribed duty of the angelic host to become 
attendants upon their suffering Prince, until he had com- 
pleted his career of degradation and woe ; the announce- 
ment may be supposed to have been received w^ith different 
emotions by the angelic hosts. It is revealed to us, that 
there was one lofty and proud spirit that revolted from 
the divine government, and whom some test of obedience 
showed to be a rebel. Nor was he alone in this rebellion, 
but drew after him a multitude of spirits who sympa- 
thized in his revolt, and openly avowed their hostility to 
the Son of God. Others there were who honored him, 
and pledged to him their allegiance. And from that day 
to this, the fallen have been the uniform enemies of Jesus 
Christ, and wanting in no subtilty, no malignity, and no 
effort to frustrate the great design of his Cross ; while the 
latter have paid him their highest homage, and withhold 
no vigilance, no tenderness, no cooperation, in advancing 
this glorious purpose. 

It may not be uninteresting to turn our thoughts tc 
some of the incidents in the history of this redemption, 
and mark the allegiance and fidelity of these pure and 
happy spirits toward the incarnate Deity. The Apostle 
Paul mentions it as one of the mysteries of godliness, 
that he was "seen of angels;" and there is higher 
import in this phraseology than lies upon the face of it. 
Not only was his whole progress, from Bethlehem to 



OF THE UNIVERSE. 347 

Calvary, observed by tbem, but the whole design, from 
its first development in the garden of Eden down to its 
final issues, when he shall come again a second time to 
judge the world in righteousness, so observed as to war- 
rant the declaration of another apostle, when he says, 
" which things the angels desire to look into." We read 
in the Old Testament of the frequent appearance to the 
Patriarchs of a distinguished personage, called, by way 
of eminence, " the angel of the Lord^"^^ or more properly 
speaking, the angel Jehovah^ or the second person in the 
Trinity. Not unfrequently did he anticipate thus his 
incarnation ; and when he did so, he was frequently 
attended by some of the angelic hosts. They watched 
the unfolding of his designs of mercy, and marked with 
interest all that he did to advance that wonderful work. 
Preparatory, merely, as that age was to his advent, and 
moreover a dark age, and the age of judgment, angels 
were the more visible executioners of his displeasure, in 
removing out of the way the stumbling-blocks which 
opposed the advancement of his kingdom. They were 
not careless spectators of those great and disastrous events 
by which the promises to Abraham were fulfilled, and by 
which his posterity were delivered from bondage, and 
received the law through their own ministration. Nor 
were they uninterested observers of those successive revo- 
lutions by which the kingdoms of this world were over- 
thrown, that the predicted Messiah might come and rule 
upon the throne of David. In later periods, it was one 
of their own number who, as the time of his incarnation 
drew near, was sent to the father of his more immediate 
forerunner to inform him that the day was drawing nigh 
when the Sun of Righteousness should arise, with healing 
in his beams. The same angel was commissioned from 
heaven to announce to th? Virgin Mother of our Lord, 



348 T^^^ CROSS THE ADMIllATIOr^ 

that she should " bring forth a son and call his name 
Jesus." When the fullness of time was come, and he was 
born at Bethlehem, an angel was directed to announce his 
birth to the shepherds ; and no sooner had he delivered 
his joyful message, than " suddenly there was wuth him 
a multitude of the heavenly hosts," all eager to repeat 
the tidings, '^ saying. Glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace and good will toward men !" They knew 
who it was that slept in the manger ; and when the shep- 
herds returned from Bethlehem, " glorifying and praising 
God for all the things that they had heard and seen," they 
could but respond to their praises, because he had come 
who was '' a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of 
his people, Israel." It is not wonderful that the world 
did not recognize him in that humble guise, while angels 
beheld in him the Sovereign to whom they had vowed 
allegiance, even during that dark period when he should 
lay aside his robes of royalty, to be clothed with flesh 
and blood. Still less wonderful is it, that when the fiends 
of darkness instigated the jealous Herod and the troubled 
inhabitants of Jerusalem to form the malignant plot against 
the life of the infant Redeemer, that, circumvented as he 
was by this malignant design, an angel should appear to 
Joseph in a dream, and conduct this holy family down 
to Egypt, there to remain until the storm had passed 
away, and by his own watchful care preserve the young 
child from the fury of the tempest. Nor was there any 
intermission of this angelic guardianship ; for, no sooner 
than Herod was dead, did the angel, according to his 
promise, appear again to Joseph, to inform him that the 
danger was past, and that the child and his mother might 
return to the land of Israel. 

Thus angels watched and guarded him through all 
his infancy, and childhood, and youth, up to the day of 



OF THE UNIVERSE. 349 

his baptism. And never had they such a charge, and 
never will they have again ! It was the holy child 
Jesus ; one among the descendants of Adam, yet pure 
and sinless ; the Son of God — ^the hope of the world ! 
Soon after his baptism, the fallen and dark spirits of 
hell again assailed him, and he was led into the wilder- 
ness, to roam in solitude amid its darkness and its beasts 
of prey, and to be tempted of the devil. But there were 
not wanting pure and celestial spirits, keeping their watch 
in the desert, and filling the air with their etherial forms. 
And after the struggle was over, and the arch adversary, 
confoimded and abashed, had left the field, '^ behold, 
angels came and ministered unto him." He who '^ came 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister," here received 
the service of these messengers of mercy. They con- 
gratulated him on his victory, cheered him in his 
solitude, brought him water from the rock, wild fruits 
of tlie desert, and with modest and humble sympathy 
comforted him with the thought that, though abandoned 
of earth and contending with fiends, he was not forgotten 
of God. The scene in Gethsemane, where, in his deep 
depression, '^ an angel appeared strengthening him," 
will not be easily forgotten. And when he stood before 
the tribunal that condemned him, angels were not far 
from that mournful scene ; for he intimated to his 
enemies, that they only waited his Father's permission 
and bidding to fly to his rescue. They watched the 
whole of that shameful process, and the catastrophe of 
that memorable tragedy, when he gave up the ghost and 
was laid in the tomb of Joseph. They guarded the 
sepulchre ; and, as soon as the morning of the third day 
dawned, as proof that his sacrifice was accepted, an 
angel was commissioned to roll away the large fragment 
of rock that was laid at the mouth of it, and at the sight 



350 THE CROSS THE ADMIRATION 

of him the Roman soldiers trembled and became as dead 
men. After he had risen from the dead, also, two angeln 
still remained about his tomb *'in shining garments," 
so that those who came early in the morning w^ith spices 
to embalm him, "were afraid, and bowed down their 
faces to the earth ;" nor were their fears relieved until 
they had the testimony and assurance of these witnesses 
from heaven that he had risen, as he had predicted. 
"When, too, at the expiration of forty days, he ascended 
up into heaven, two angels stood by his wondering and 
disconsolate disciples, in white apparel, pointing to the 
heaven where he had gone, and whence he would (5ome 
again in like manner as they had seen him go. And 
now that he is gone, while they adore and worship him 
in heaven, and offer him the incense of their praise, they 
are not less mindful than they once were of the great 
work of his redemption on the earth. They watch over 
his church, and he still sends them on messages of love 
to men, as " ministering spirits sent forth to minister for 
them who shall be heirs of salvation !" There is little 
doubt but guardian angels hover around the people of 
God for their defence and comfort ; and when they die, 
their spirits, like that of the beggar in the parable, are 
'' carried by angels to Abraham's bosom." " Take 
heed," says the Saviour, " that ye offend not one of 
these little ones which believe in me ; for in heaven, 
their angels do always behold the face of my Father 
which is in heaven." There is no office of love which 
they are not willing to perform, and to which they are 
not bound by allegiance to their Lord. Though not 
human, they are members of Christ's family, and take 
delight in serving its younger branches in this distant 
world. Such is the interest they take in the successes of 
this redemption, that they watch the influence of every 



OF THE UNIVERSE. 351 

Sabbath, hover over every assembly of worshipers, and 
express their joy when even ^' one sinner repenteth." 
In the great conflict which is going on in our world, these 
angels of light are contending with the powers of dark- 
ness, and, by all their vigilance and mighty energy, 
forestalling the machinations and the influence of him 
who ^^ goeth about, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he 
may devour.'' 

Angels and powers are thus made subject to Jesus 
Christ. Still they are ministering spirits, and their min- 
istration will continue till the close of time. At the 
opening of the sixth seal of the Apocalypse, John saw 
'' four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, 
holding the four winds ;" and he saw '' another angel 
ascending from the East, having the seal of the Living 
God : and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, 
saying. Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, 
till we hav^e sealed the servants of our God in their fore- 
heads." At the opening of the seventh seal, he saw 
*^ seven angels which stood before God ; and to them 
were given seven trumpets. And another angel came 
and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and there 
was given him much incense, that he should offer it with 
the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was 
before the throne." These seven angels successively 
sounded their trumpets, and woe after woe fell upon the 
earth, and accomplished their work of destruction upon 
the incorrigible nations who had '^ taken counsel together 
against the Lord and against his Christ." After this, 
'^ there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought 
against the Dragon; and the Dragon fought and his 
angels, and prevailed not." And then was heard a loud 
voice, saying in heaven, '' Now is come salvation and 
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of 



352 THE CROSS THE ADMIRATION 

his Christ." After this, he '' saw another angel fly in 
the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to 
preach unto them that dvi^ell on the earth ;" then followed 
another, saying, '' Babylon is fallen, is fallen ;" then 
another came out of the Temple, to '' reap the harvest 
of the earth;" and then "another came down from 
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great 
chain in his hand, and laid hold on the Dragon, that old 
Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a 
thousand years." 

I have said that this angelic ministration will continue 
to the close of time. Of this, we have the most explicit 
information. When the end shall come, the Son of Man 
" shall send forth his angels to gather out of his kingdom 
all things that do offend," and he himself will come in the 
clouds of heaven, " in the glory of his Father, and with 
his angels," to judge the world. The mystery of God will 
then be completed, and the issues of this redemption 
shall form the theme of that angelic song of ^'much 
people in heaven, saying, Salvation, and glory, and 
honor, and power unto the Lord our God ! 

Such is the interest which other worlds take in the Cross 
of Christ. It is perhaps desirable to direct our thoughts 
to some of the reasons of this angelic sympathy, and take 
a brief view of the considerations by which it is so long 
sustained. These will appear, in part at least, from the 
following observations. 

The facts themselves, connected with the Cross of 
Christ, are sufficient to excite and sustain the attention 
of this exalted race of intelligences. It has been the 
object of the preceding chapters to show what these facts 
are. They are its great Sufferer, and his stupendous de- 
signs of wisdom and mercy. They are his truth and grace, 
his humiliation, exaltation, and kingdom set up in the 



I 



OF THE UNIVERSE. 353 

hearts of millions, and established, in defiance of his ma- 
lignant and powerful foe, and recognized throughout 
the universe of God. They are the history of this great 
universe, identified as it is with the history of the Cross, 
and giving to the government of God over his moral 
creation, that absorbing interest, and importance, and 
emphasis, which are its due. The more we ourselves, 
with our limited capacities and knowledge, take a view 
of these great facts, and enter into their solemn and 
affecting import, the more do they produce strong emo- 
tions, even within our own bosoms. What overwhelm- 
ing interest, then, is attached to them, when contemplated 
by an angel's mind ! These exalted beings are not indif- 
ferent to any of the works of God ; they sang together, 
as so many morning stars, at the birth of this exterior 
creation. But w^hat an atom is this lower Avorld, with all 
its glory, in their estimation, compared with the Cross ! 
How little impression is made upon their minds by all its 
revolutions, all the wealth and splendor of its princes, all 
its conflicts and victories, in contrast with his Cross who 
is the Creator of them all, and their own Creator and 
Lord! They take an interest in the dispensations of 
divine providence, and observe and mark them as they 
are progressively evolved ; but they take a greater inter- 
est in the Cross, because it is the centre of them all, and 
the ultimate point to which every other purpose of God 
is directed. A stumbling-block and foolishness as it is to 
multitudes of this low world, to them it is the great 
mystery of godliness ; their study and admiration ; 
" the master-piece of the manifold wisdom of God ; the 
wonder of the universe." All lesser lights are eclipsed 
by the superior splendor of this Sun of Righteousness. 
Well did the Eternal Father say, when he introduced his 



354 THE CROSS THE ADMIRATION 

first-begotten into the world, ^' Let all the angels of God 
worship him !" 

There are also blessings secured by the Cross, in which 
these exalted intelligences take a deep and hallowed 
interest. Angels are of a perfectly benevolent character. 
They delight in holiness, and in the happiness which 
holiness secures. Their exaltation above this world, and 
above the sinful race which occupies it, does not prevent 
their taking a deep interest in its welfare. The salvation 
of a single soul is to them a matter of deep and attractive 
interest ; while the spiritual renovation and consequent 
joy of the untold multitudes that are brought into the 
divine kingdom through the influence of the Cross, fill 
them with triumph and exultation such as those minds 
alone are capable of enjoying that are affected by no taint 
of sin. There is a magnitude and importance, a reality 
and weight, in the blessings secured by the Cross, which 
none but angelic minds can discern. They are number- 
less as the evils from which the soul of man is delivered, 
and as the moments of that happy eternity to which it 
is advanced ; and in their dimensions such as cannot 
be measured even by the ken of angels. Yet these 
benevolent beings have a far more just and adequate con- 
ception of them, than though they were men like our- 
selves, and dwelt, as we dwell, at such a distance from 
that ineffable glory to which the Cross ultimately intro- 
duces the myriads of its redeemed. The eternity which 
is hidden from our view, is open to theirs ; the heights 
of purity to which our minds never soar, are but the 
common level of their own ; while the fullness of joy of 
which we have but the foretaste, springs up in their bosoms 
as rivers of pleasure and overflowing fountains of salva- 
tion. The thought that sinners of our race will one day 



OF THE UNIVERSE. 355 

be made like unto themselves, and be brought as near to 
the Father of lights as they ; be as holy as they now 
are, and, as redeemed sinners, possess some traits of holy 
character more amiable and lovely than theirs ; while 
with them they will explore the exhaustless sources of 
blessedness attendant on their common immortality ; 
cannot but communicate unutterable delight to minds as 
holy and benevolent as theirs. 

Besides this, the realities of the Cross hear a relation 
to their interests. Though not redeemed, they have a 
personal interest in the glorious consequences of redemp- 
tion. On the apostacy of those of their own angelic 
family who were cast down to hell, they remained the 
only race that were true and loyal to their Prince. In 
attaching themselves to his person and to the ministra- 
tions of his Cross, they entered upon that fearful conflict 
in which every trophy of the Redeemer's grace gave fresh 
laurels to their own crown. His conquests are theirs ; 
the captives of his truth and love are victory and gain to 
their own cause ; and every accession to his kingdom 
swells the number of that holy family of which, as he is 
the Head, so they are but the elder children. It is by 
the Cross of Christ that the angelic host sustain relations 
to this world which they would not otherwise have sus- 
tained, and it is only by the Cross that they discover that 
relation. By taking hold of the lowest link of the chain 
of created intelligences and binding them to the highest, 
the Cross binds the highest to the lowest, and constitutes 
them all one spiritual and happy community. It is the 
bond which unites the entire holy universe. It is through 
this comprehensive influence, that God " purposed in 
himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, 
he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both 
which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in 



356 THE CROSS THE ADMIRATION 

him.'^ " It pleased the Father that in him should all 
fullness dwell, and having made peace through the 
blood of the Cross, by him to reconcile all things to 
himself: by him, I say, whether they be things on 
earth, or things in heaven." It was an important 
and interesting epoch in the history of angels, when the 
period of their probation closed, and they were confirmed 
in holiness, as redeemed and believing sinners are con- 
firmed by their faith in Christ. It is not forbidden us 
to believe that it is by the Cross that they are united with 
the confirmed family of believers, and with them stand 
immovably and forever. Nor is the assurance anywhere 
discoverable in the Word of God, that the time might not 
come when, like their former companions in glory who 
fell, they might also have been permitted to leave their 
first estate, but for the influence of the Cross and the 
proof it furnished of their inviolate allegiance to the great 
redeeming God and King. 

There is still another reason for the interest which this 
holy and angelic race take in the Cross of Christ. It ia 
the great medium by which all the perfections of God are 
exhibited, and the fullness of the divine glory flows out for 
the everlasting blessedness of the holy universe, God him- 
self is the portion and joy of angels. It is the contem- 
plation of his great and glorious character, and the 
reflection of that uncreated light in which he dwells, that 
makes them what they are. Though the essential glory 
of God cannot be increased, and nothing can make him 
holier, or wiser, or more glorious than he is, yet does he 
manifest these inherent and unchanging perfections of 
his nature in continual augmentation and enlargement. 
He does so by his Avorks of creation and providence, but 
more especially by his greater work of grace. The ' 'glory 
of God in the face of Jesus Christ," is his only true glory. 



OF THE LrNR^'ERSE. 357 

It was " to the intent, that now unto principalities and 
powers in heavenly places^ ^ this glory might be mani- 
fested, that his Son took our nature and died on the 
accursed tree. Take the Cross away from our world, 
and angels themselves would see comparatively little of 
God. The fullness, the richness, the resplendency of 
the divine nature would have been forever obscured. 
Angels would indeed have beheld his character without a 
stain, but they would not have beheld it as it is. Though 
its excellencies would never have withered, never lan- 
guished, they would never have stood out in their appro- 
priate, glowing glory. Angels would have seen that he 
is poAverful, and wise, and just, and good; but they would 
never have known how justice and mercy, in all their 
wonderful and strange combinations, constitute his adorn- 
ment and glory, but for the Cross. Their knowledge 
and admiration of the divine character were greatly in- 
creased by a discovery of this great design, and it has 
been increasing from that day to this. This stupendous 
design attracts their attention more and more, because it 
is so full of God. To the present hour, their contempla- 
tion of it engages their purest and most ardent affections. 
That moral phenomenon, the love of God in the gift of 
his Son, attracting to his person and his throne untold 
multitudes of a race otherwise degraded, despised, and 
cast off forever, excites within them joy and ecstacy 
which never could have been otherwise excited. It is 
not to heaven that angels now look for the brightest ex- 
hibitions of the Deity, but to earth. They are not tlie 
scenes of celestial splendor which so nuicli enchant them, 
as t]ie scenes that once took place here in this lower 
world, and that are even now prolonged. The most 
transporting exhibitions of the God who is invisible, are 
made through the Sufferer of Calvary, and angels behold 



358 THE CROSS THE ADMIRATION 

them here ; and when they would have the most vivid 
impressions of them, they still bend from their thrones to 
look toward Calvary and the Cross. Then it is that they 
veil their faces, and, as they tell of its mysteries, *' say 
one to another. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, 
the whole earth is full of his glory !" The Cross has 
attractions for angels. So long as the source and fullness 
of their joy is the knowledge and enjoyment of God, it 
is but to veil the Cross, and you shut up the sources of 
their highest joy. They are not simply a few broken 
and refracted rays of the divine glory that they desire, or 
that make them as holy and happy as they are. Obscure 
the Cross, and, because you would thus abate their high 
and intense admiration of the divine character, you would 
suppress the most exalted strains of their everlasting 
song. 

Will the reader contemplate the Cross with some such 
spiritual emotions? Not one of all that guilty race for 
which Jesus died, may feel at liberty to regard this re- 
demption with indifference. What admiration of this 
great work ought to fill our bosoms, for whom that aton- 
ing blood was spilt ! How should our love to God be 
incited and increased, and our confidence in him be 
strengthened, by frequent and steady contemplations of 
this stupendous method of his saving mercy ! What 
humility should cover us^ when angels stoop to look into 
these things ! and what abhorrence of our sins, that 
thus crucified the Lord of mm n and angels ! Can it be, 
that there are those who despise that which tlie holiest 
arid highest race of creatures thus view with boundless 
admiration? that any turn away from the crucified 
One with shame, when angels behold him with such 
reverence as to veil their faces in his presence? What 
they behold with wonder, you may 1 ehold with wonder 



OF THE UNIVERSE. 359 

also. What they make the theme of their more exalted 
praise, you may make the theme of your humbler song. 
Angels are the inhabitants of heaven — the heaven 
where the Saviour dwells, the heaven of the Bible. Will 
you, beloved reader, ever dwell in that holy and happy 
world 1 You may, perhaps, imagine that there is some- 
where in the universe a place called heaven, where, if 
you could go, you would of course be happy. Most cer- 
tainly there is such a place, but it is not impossible that 
it is a very different place from what you conceive. If 
you look abroad on the world, and peradventure if you 
look within your own heart, you will see how differently 
men feel toward the Cross of Christ from the sacred emo- 
tions which animate the bosoms of the angelic hosts. To 
be fitted for heaven, you must feel an interest in the 
thoughts, affections, employments, character and society 
which constitute its blessedness. In heaven, '^ they are 
neither married nor are given in marriage, but are as the 
angels of God." Those who feel no interest in the Cross, 
are destitute of all those traits of character which assimi- 
late them to angels ; and with their present spirit, next to 
the world of despair, heaven would be the abode of in- 
tense misery to those who take no delight in the wonders 
of redeeming love. The Cross must become the centre 
of your joys, it must have all the glory ; and not until 
you can glory in it with Paul, and delight in it with the 
angels of God, can you with them come home to Mount 
Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon your head. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 

I PROCEED now to speak of the triumphs of the Cross. 
Triumph supposes a previous contest. Ever since that 
revohition in heaven, which resulted in the revolt of the 
rebellious ang-els, the universe has been the scene of con- 
flict. It has been extended to the heaven above us, and 
to the hell below us ; but the great theatre of it, and its 
more immediate arena, is the earth on which we dwell. 
Here it has been carried on for six thousand years ; 
beginning with the fall of man, and destined to continue 
until the final consummation of all things. Other worlds 
feel an interest in it for their own sake, and for the mighty 
stake it involves ; while it is a subject of deep interest 
to all the inhabitants of this world, because it carries 
with it the character and destiny of all the generations 
of men, from the first creation onward to interminable 
ages. 

It is a controversy which is maintained within and 
without us. As maintained within us, it views man as a 
moral being, fallen from his primeval integrity and the 
slave of sin, and yet capable of recovery, and under a 
dispensation divinely fitted to restore him to more than 
the purity and elevation from which he fell. It views 
him under the influence of the two contending powers — 
his own internal corruptions, and the truth and grace 
revealed in tlie Cross of Christ. Without us, it is main- 



THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 361 

tained by all the powers of light and darkness, good and 
evil, holiness and sin, in the universe. On the one 
hand, there is the great foe of God and man, the Chief 
of the fallen angels, the Prince of devils, and the god of 
this world. Confederate with him are the fallen of both 
worlds, living and dead, corporeal and uncorporcal, all 
possessing, though in varied measures, essentially the 
same spirit, and formidable, not only from their numbers, 
but front their treachery and indefatigable perseverance. 
On the other hand, there is God's incarnate Son, who 
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, 
King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and combining the 
wisdom, the power, the rectitude and the love of the 
eternal Godhead. In alliance with him are the angels 
who maintained their primeval integrity ; an innumer- 
able company, who are swift to do the will of their divine 
Leader, hearkening to the voice of his word. To these 
are united the saints in heaven, from the pardoned Adam 
down to the last redeemed spirit borne by angels to Abra- 
ham's bosom — Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles and 
Martyrs— godly men and godly women, of every age and 
clime, who, though separated from these scenes of sense, 
and gone from earth to heaven, put not off their armor. 
With these are leagued all godly men in the earth, b}^ 
whatever name they are called, wherever dispersed, and 
by whatever peculiarities their moral training is distin- 
guished. All these belong to the same kingdom, espouse 
the same cause, are baptized into the same spirit, clothed 
with the same divine panoply, and bound together by tlie 
same sacramental oath. In this great conflict no intelli- 
gent being in the universe remains neutral ; and the 
effort, the profession or the pretension to be so, stigma- 
tizes him as an enemy. None can keep aloof from this 
16 



362 THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 

agitating question, nor maintain such a position of as- 
sumed indifference, as will not, sooner or later, betray 
their ill-disguised hostility. 

The nature of the conflict itself it is not difficult to 
understand. The foundation of it lies deep in the essen- 
tial difference of character of those Avho are engaged in 
it, and which, so long as this irreconcilable spirit exists, 
perpetuates the hostility. It is the Seed of the woman 
arrayed against the seed of the serpent, and he that is 
after the flesh opposing him who is after the spirit. 
What gives interest to this over all other conflicts is, that 
it is a contest for principle, and involves the great inter- 
ests of truth and holiness, in opposition to those of error 
and sin. It is a conflict of different and opposing inter- 
ests, deliberately selected and pursued, and involving 
the claims of the divine government, the rights of con- 
science, and the prevalence of holiness in this fallen 
world. It is a contest for ultimate dominion, and involves 
the question of the divine supremacy. Whether God 
and his Christ shall reign, and his empire of truth, and 
holiness, and joy, shall be triumphant ; or whether the 
devil and his angels shall triumph, and their empire of 
error, and sin, and woe, shall be extended over the earth, 
is th€ true question at issue. Never can the Deity so 
trifle with the interests of truth and rectitude as to tar 
nish the glory of his great name, and abandon his throne ; 
and never will the powers of darkness submit to his 
dominion, or cease from 



their ambitious aim 



Against the throne and monarchy of God." 

Hence the collision — collision to the last ; while upon its 
final issues are dependent the glory, honor and immor- 



THE TRIUaiPHS OF THE CROSS. 353 

tality of all the holy and virtuous, and the shame, igno- 
miny and death of the vicious and unholy. 

The means by which this conflict is sustained are 
sufficiently indicative of the character of those who 
employ them, and the ends they aim at securing. On 
the one hand, they partake of that fickle and changeful 
policy which the subtil enemy, fortified by long experi- 
ence, and expert in deeds of wickedness, knows so well 
how to employ. It is a systenr of stratagem, sometimes 
making use of all the powers of human reason, elevated 
and furnished as they were in the Augustan and Athe- 
nian ages, and at others throwing a pall of ignorance 
over the human mind so deep and heavy as to be for 
centuries impervious. Sohietimes it is persuasion and 
smiles : generations become giddy with pride, and are 
flattered in crowds into the broad way that leads to death. 
Sometimes it is power and coercion ; and every engine 
of torture which malice can invent, or cruelty employ, is 
made use of to shut men out of the kingdom of God. 
Sometimes it is by the enactments of civil government, 
when the devil enters into the hearts of princes and legisla- 
tors; and sometimes it is by governments that are ecclesi- 
astical, when pontiffs, and cardinals, and bishops are the 
selected agents of his infuriate malignity. Sometimes it 
is by a corrupted church and a corrupted ministry ; so 
that the professed standard-bearers in the camp of Israel 
are its betrayers into the hands of the enemy. Some- 
times it is by error under the guise of truth, and so art- 
fully and indefatigably disseminated, as '^ to deceive, if 
it were possible, the very elect." Sometimes it is by 
peace, and sometimes by war : the former enriching the 
nations, and enervating them by its luxury, and pros- 
trating them at the shrine of Mammon ; the latter intro- 
ducing violence, blood, rapine, fraud, and every species 



364 THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 

of crime, and sweeping its millions into eternity, without 
God and without hope. Sometimes it is by the debasing 
passions of men, and sometimes by their criminal thought- 
lessness. Sometimes it is by infatuating the old, and 
sometimes by corrupting the young. No doctrine is 
better understood by the great adversary, than that 
"great effects result from little causes." A little matter 
may give a fresh impulse to the strong and downward 
course of human depravity. The day is coming, when 
it will be seen, that " he who goeth about like a roaring 
lion, seeking whom he may devour," has left nothing 
untouched in the world of matter or of mind, to which 
he could have access, and by which he could exert an 
agency ruinous to the souls of men, or insure himself 
ever so partial a victory. If, from this dark view, we 
advert to the means by which the interests of holiness 
are promoted, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ estab- 
lished in the hearts of men, and extended in the world, 
we shall find them of a very opposite character, and 
worthy of their Author. They are powerful, but not 
numerous ; nor are they intricate and involved, but 
simple, and a child may understand them. They have 
no malice to gratify, no wrongs which they seek to avenge. 
They have no snares, and no stratagem ; no art and chi- 
canery. They seek no concealment, but are all patent, 
and lie open to the face of day. They are wise, because 
they are devised by Him who has studied the human 
heart ; they are unwearied and insinuating, because he 
cannot consent to lose his object; and they are overbold 
and watchful, because he knows the enemy he has to en- 
counter. They are all comprised in one single word — the 
CROSS — the " word of their testimony and the blood of the 
Lamb." They are THE TRUTH AND THE LOVE 
OF THE CROSS. If you look at tlie varied instrumen- 



THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 355 

talities employed by the King of Zion, you will find them 
summed up in these. They are, in one word, the Bible, 
the unadulterated Bible — the Bible recognized as the only 
infallible rule of faith and practice. And the Bible is 
full of the Cross. Its living ministry — its pure, and faith- 
ful, and unwearied ministry, watching for souls, as they 
that must give account — ^'know nothing save Jesus Christ 
and him crucified." Its holy Sabbath — returning weekly 
in its attractive stillness, conducting its unnumbered 
multitudes to the house of God, vocal with his mercy and 
his praises, fragrant with his ordinancesy^and sacred to his 
presence and glory — savors of nothing so much as the Cross. 
The name of Jesus gives to all its services their peculiar 
importance, their unutterable desires, their most sacred 
delights. Its social relations, and its religious nurture of 
the young, draw forth the ardor and tenderness of the 
heart toward him who was crucified, because that hal- 
lowed circle so often go and stand together at the Cross, 
and because the Cross sheds its fragrance there, and minds 
born in sin there receive the seal of the Cross and its 
hope of immortality. It is the Cross, and only the 
Cross, that imparts to all these their power. This is 
the banner w^hich the God of heaven unfurls in the 
sight of the nations, and under which he goes forth to 
oppose all the powers of darkness, and to subjugate the 
world. The Saviour never uttered a more animating 
sentence than when he said, '' And I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, will draw all men unto me." '^ The 
hour was come in which the Son of Man should be 
glorified !" The faith of the Gentiles should glorify him, 
even though he should be rejected by the Jews. The 
seed was just about to be buried in the heart of the earth, 
that should produce an abundant harvest. He had just 
been told of the accession of the Gentiles to his kingdom, 



366 THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 

and the announcement kindled a glow of anticipation in 
his bosom, and he seemed to be already triumphing in 
the future conquests of his grace and truth. " Verily, 
verily, I say unto you," said he, " except a corn of 
wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but 
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit *^^ The character 
he had exhibited, and the miracles he had wrought, con- 
vincing as they were that he came forth from God, were 
not invested with the power to be ascribed to the death 
to which he was ordained. They could not speak tlie 
language of his great sacrifice ; they did not utter the 
ti'uths that were to be " mighty through God ;" they did 
not possess the influence and attraction of the Cross. 
The Cross was to be elevated from the high places of 
the earth, that the people might know where the Prince 
and Saviour is to be found, and flock to his standard. 
Whatever interest men have had in the common salvation, 
whatever interest they have now, and will hereafter enjoy, 
is to be attributed to the attraction of the Cross. It shall 
not triumph without a struggle, nor without a host of 
enemies uniting their forces against it, and disputing 
every inch of the conquered territory ; but it shall be 
ultimately triumphant, and possess the earth. 

The cause of which the Cross is the standard is the cause 
of truth and righteousness. It is a good cause, and the 
only good cause in the world ; and if the God of heaven 
is the friend of truth and righteousness, it must prevail. 
All holy beings in the universe are its supporters. God 
created the world for it ; for it he governs the world which 
he made ; and for it he gave his Son to die. To advance 
it, his Son descended from heaven, and his Spirit dwells 
with men. Whoever they be, and in whatever world 
they dwell, who oppose such interests, engage in the dis- 
astrous enterprise with misgivings of heart, with an em- 



THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 267 

barrassed judgment, an oppressed conscience, and more 
fears than hopes ; while, on the other hand, the friends 
and supporters of such a cause espouse it with confidence, 
and with a tranquillity of mind, and a firmness of pur- 
pose, which nothing- can disturb, and which their faith in 
God and in their own ultimate success invigorates and 
emboldens. The history of our world shows deeds of 
noble daring achieved by faith in the Cross. There is a 
mighty power in the Cross to concentrate the affections, 
and combine the efforts, of the friends of truth and right- 
eousness, even though they were but few. The opposers 
of the Cross are a discordant multitude, without harmony 
of sentiment or affection. Its friends are one, and their 
union is their strength. The three hundred that lapped 
under Gideon, were more potent than the mighty hosts 
of Midian and Amalek. The little band of twelve apostles 
had more power over the minds of men than all the 
forces of Jewish and Gentile unbelief. The persecuted 
Albigenses could not be crushed even by the power of 
Rome ; while the very valleys that were drenched with 
their blood, became the scenes of their triumph. It was 
confidence in their cause that nerved the hearts of the 
noble Reformers, and gave them the victory when the 
powers of earth and hell rose up against them. Tlie 
cause of truth and righteousness must prevail. Like the 
ark of God when it was borne by ancient Israel, the very 
excellence of the Cross is sure to carry ultimate confusion 
and dismay into the camp of its enemies. 

There is also, in the next place, an adaptation in the 
Cross to impress and subdue the hearts of its enemies. 
Such are the elements of Christianity, that when they 
once come in contact with the liearts of men, the one 
or the other must be subdued. They are so diametri- 
cally opposite in their nature and tendencies, that they 



368 THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 

cannot come in collision without producing the most 
sensible effects. In this, as well as other particulars, tlie 
religion of the Cross is different from all other religions, 
falling in as they do with the natural inclinations of men, 
and, instead of disputing the empire with unhallowed 
passions, yielding to them that empire without restraint. 
The Cross directs its influences to the sources of human 
iniquity, and by its purity and holiness would fain estab- 
lish its entire dominion over the interior man. It con- 
siders nothing accomplished until it sets up the living 
God in the place of every idol, and at the same time 
disrobes the soul of all its visible and external badges of 
loyalty to another master. This is its great object ; and 
though, in securing this, it meets with its greatest resist- 
ance, in this very conflict consists its greatest power. Its 
truths are mighty, because they are truths, and because 
they relate to subjects of vast extent, of the highest im- 
portance, and such as the human mind, when once 
arrested, feels a deep interest in investigating. Not a 
few of them are unwelcome ; but it is an interesting fact 
that some of the most humbling and unwelcome truths the 
Gospel reveals, are those which take the deepest hold of 
the inquiring mind. The evidence that these truths are 
from God is such as no ingenuous mind can resist. They 
are so supported by the divine authority, that they come 
home with amazing power. They are the truths which 
it behoves men to know, because tliey publish the laws 
by which they must be governed, the apostacy which is 
their ruin, the redemption which is their recovery, the 
heaven which they hope for, and the hell they fear. No 
truth can be compared with the truth of the Cross, for 
its intrinsic excellence, its binding obligations, its fitness 
to the lost condition of man, or its effectiveness in fixing 
his everlasting condition beyond tiie grave. They are 



I 



THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 3^9 

not legendary tales, nor the dreams of false prophets, nor 
the opinions, nor traditions, nor commandments of men ; 
but truth^ so copious and complete, that nothing is left 
for men to desire to know, and so authoritative, that when 
they come within the sphere of its influence, they them- 
selves see that they must yield to it, or die in the conflict. 
Its ministers may be unfaithful, but the Cross is faithful ; 
it holds men to the alternative of submission and life, or 
revolt and perdition. It is a very interesting crisis in a 
man's history, when his understanding is controlled by 
the truth of the Cross. His understanding is the avenue 
to his conscience ; and when reason and conscience unite 
in demanding his confidence for the Son of God, he is a 
miserable man until he becomes a Christian. Truth and 
love have mighty power to break the chains of sin — to 
beat down the strongholds of the powers of darkness — to 
triumph over spiritual wickedness in high places — to take 
the prey from the mighty, and rescue the captive from 
the terrible. Nor let it be forgotten, that this is an adap- 
tation which God himself honors. While he " will 
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the 
understanding of the prudent," he makes the Cross 
" the power of God to salvation." No matter what it is 
that advances to the place of the Cross — whether it be 
the philosophy of the world, or the systems of Paganism, 
or false religions baptized by the name of a rational 
Christianity — he pours contempt upon them all, and puts 
honor only on the Cross. '' Christ crucified," though 
" to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks fool- 
ishness, is the power of God and the wisdom of God." 
Heaven shouted when it was first announced ; earth was 
astonished ; and in a little while heaven shall shout 
again, and in greater raptures, '^ the whole earth is 
full of his glory." 
16* 



370 THE TRIUxMPIIS OF THE CROSS. 

Take, now, a rapid glance at the actual triumphs of 
the Cross ^ from the first promulgation of Christianity^ to 
the present time. From the treatment which the Cross 
of Christ has received in this apostate world, it would 
sometimes seem that its ultimate triumphs were hopeless. 
Infidels have inquired, with an air of victory, * ' Whence 
is it, if Christianity is the religion revealed from heaven, 
that it has been diffused over so small a portion of the 
earth? Why is it that Paganism and Mohammedanism 
occupy four-fifths of this globe, and the remaining 
one-fifth alone is occupied by Christianity? Why does 
the Gospel spread so slowly at the present day, so that 
now, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, so large a part 
of the world are strangers to its power ?" It were enough 
for us, in replying to this objection, to say, that the ways 
of God are inscrutable to us, and that w^hile it may not 
be possible for us to trace all the reasons why the light 
of truth is, for so long a period, hidden from some of the 
nations, it is but the commencement of its triumphs which 
has been hitherto witnessed. The plans of the Deity are 
large and vast, and none of them are accomplished in a 
moment, nor without that preparation and gradual pro- 
gress which most significantly indicate the wisdom of 
their Author. God has seen fit to employ human means 
for eflfecting this great design ; nor is it any impeach- 
ment of his character, that he has not interposed for the 
diffusion of the Gospel by a series of miracles. Nor is it 
to be forgotten that the religion of the Cross has, in all 
its progress, contended with obstacles with which no other 
religion has contended, and has been extended by means 
that have had no alliance with the power and authority 
by which other religions have had access to the nations. 
Other religions have found abettors in the prejudices, the 
vices, the follies, the ignorance, the delusions of men ; 



THE TramiTHS of the cross. 371 

while the religion of the Cross has been opposed to them 
all. Otlier religions have been propagated by the power 
of the sword; the religion of the Cross has been extended 
while the power of the sword has been wielded against 
it. Otlier religions have been extended by rapine and 
plunder ; the religion of tlie Cross by the conversion of 
those who '' took joyfully the spoiling of their goods " 
for the name of Jesus. Other religions have been ex- 
tended by the authority of human governments ; the 
relisrion of the Cross not only without this adventitious 
aid, but in the face of all law, and in defiance of magis- 
tracy and empire. It has waded through seas of blood, 
walked through the fires of persecution, and sealed its 
testimony in the dungeon and at the stake, and amid all 
the wanton barbarity of suffering. It has been humble, 
peaceable, laborious, patient, prayerful ; it has been 
without wealtli, without power, without popularity, and 
without the honor that cometh from men ; and j^et has 
its progress been so successful, as to furnish sufficient 
evidence of its triumphs. It cominenced its career with 
the death of its Founder, and when he who was crucified 
on Calvary, and rose again from the dead, had but twelve 
men for his followers. But its attraction was soon felt 
throughout the world. Its first triumphs were over the 
unbelieving JewSy violent and uncompromising in their 
hostility to the Christian faith, from the highest seat of 
magistracy in Jerusalem down to the lowest publican 
who sat at the receipt of customs ; yet did it establish its 
churches throughout Judea, Galiled and Samaria, while 
its opposers were smitten by the wrath of heaven, their 
proud city destroyed, and themselves scattered over the 
earth, a hissing and by-word among the nations. Its 
next triumphs were in Pagan Rome ; at that period the 
colossal power of the earth, stretching itself from the 



372 THE triu:mphs of the chosl-. 

Straits of Gibraltar to the Caspian Sea, covering all 
Europe, extending itself into Africa and the South of 
Britain, and uniting its pride of learning and science, the 
influence of its philosophy and the power of its emperors, 
to exterminate the Gospel. Yet, within thirty years after 
the crucifixion, their own accomplished historian, Tacitus, 
informs us there w^as an immense number of Christians 
in the very capital. From this centre Christianity spread 
through the empire, ascended even to the throne, put to 
silence the wisdom of ages, emptied the schools of phi- 
losophy, closed the temples of Paganism, and while it 
put out the fire on their altars, enkindled in its place the 
flame of its own spiritual sacrifices. From Rome it was 
diffused everywhere, and, even before the destruction of 
Jerusalem, had found its way to Sc3'^thia on the north, 
India on the east, Gaul and Egypt on the west, and 
Ethiopia on the south. Seven of its regular churches 
were established in Asia Minor, others in Greece, and 
others in Britain, before half a century had passed away 
from the commencement of the Christian era. As time 
rolled on, it was still extended farther and wider over the 
earth. The kings of the earth beheld in its silent pro- 
gress the overthrow of those systems of superstition which 
upheld their thrones ; but in vain did they take counsel 
against it. In vain did mercenary priests oppose it, be- 
cause they saw in it the certain diminution of those 
resources by which they had become enriched at the 
expense of tli^e people. In vain did philosophers oppose 
it, because t!fey saw in it the contempt of all their proud 
science. One tedious and bloody century after another 
passed away, inciting against it the pride, the fanaticism 
and the malignity that were eager to exhaust themselves 
on its peaceable teachers and harmless followers ; but 
it triumphed. And when that dark night of a thousand 



THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROgti. 373 

years overshadowed the earth, during which it reposed 
amid the wealth and luxury of princes, and lived only 
amid ceremonies and observances that well nigh extin- 
guished its spiritual existence ; it at length awoke healthy 
and vigorous as in the days of its youth, because it car- 
ried within its own bosom indestructible elements, and 
Avas associated with the power of its glorified Author. 
And when assailed, as it subsequently was, by the un- 
settling power of an infidel age, and the pens of the 
learned and the tongues of the eloquent beset it on every 
side, it gloriously survived this great crisis of its conflicts, 
and entered upon that period of spiritual influences which 
has not ceased to mark its progress. The boasting ene- 
mies of the Cross have passed away like the chaff of the 
summer threshing-floor, but the Cross is still lifted up. 
Empires have been turned upside down, cities have been 
obliterated and forgotten ; but wherever the Cross has 
been erected, the wilderness blossoms as the rose, and 
the solitary place has become glad for its tidings of great 
joy. Commerce has been turned from its ancient chan- 
nels, to give free course to the word of this salvation, 
borne on every breeze, protected by every government, 
facilitated and propelled by every improvement in the 
arts to the distant quarters of the globe. Never was the 
Holy Bible so widely diffused as it is now. Never were 
the missionaries of the Cross so extensively scattered over 
heathen lands as in the day in which we live. Never 
were so many sanctuaries open ; and never, with every 
returning day of the Son of Man, were there so many of 
his ministers proclaiming the riches of his grace, and 
never such untold multitudes assembled to listen to 
its wondrous message. The wide circle of the earth 
furnishes no religion that is now pushing its conquests 
with half the success that attends the doctrine of the 



374 THE TRIUMPHS UF THE CROSS. 

Cross. Every other religion wanes, and the Cross alone 
is crescent. Now, after the expiration of eighteen cen- 
turies of conflict, of trial, of darkness, there is probably 
more living, active piety among men, than has ever been 
found since the risen Redeemer ascended into heaven and 
gave his Gospel to the world. 

And what has been thus begun shall be gloriously con- 
summated. The past is a sure pledge of the future, and 
that pledge is made sure by the promise of God. There 
have been seasons when, to human view, it appeared 
that the issue of this conflict would be in favor of the 
adversary. The Seed of the woman and the seed of the 
serpent alternately have had the advantage. The golden 
age of Christianity, though it may have dawned, is yet 
obscured with many a cloud. It is even now an age of 
worldliness, of great indifference and apathy to the things 
that are not seen, and of deep jealousy and mournful 
divisions in the Christian Church. It is an age in which 
the pure truth of the Gospel is more or less corrupted ; an 
age of extravagance, and an age of unchristian exclu- 
siveness, and useless discussions about external forms of 
polity, and endless genealogies, to the neglect of the 
great doctrines, and motives, and obligations of the Cross. 
It is an age in which the Man of Sin is again rearing 
his dragon head, and vomiting out his waters, to chase 
the '' man-child" into the wilderness. But though, to 
the eye of a doubting faith, success seems to hover, now 
over one side of the combatants, and now over the other, 
there is no uncertainty as to the question on which side 
it is to light. The promise has gone forth, '' It shall 
bruise thy head;^^ the only poor promise to the foe is, 
'' Thou shalt bruise his heel.'^^ There is nothing the 
adversary so much hates and fears as the Cross. " No 
weapon formed against it shall prosper." He whose 



THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 375 

veracity is sure has pronounced the decree, that the cru- 
cified One " shall reign till all enemies are put under his 
feet," and that ^' the kingdom, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the 
saints of the Most High God." The solemn oath stands 
on record in his word, '^ As I live, saith the Lord, the 
whole earth shall be filled with my glory !" All '^ the 
ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the 
Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
before him." The time is appointed when Satan, the 
great instigator of the powers of darkness, shall be bound, 
and a seal set upon his prison ; when the idolatry of the 
heathen shall cease, and the " gods that have not made 
the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from 
the earth, and from under these heavens." The blind- 
ness of the long-rejected Jews shall yet be dissipated, 
and the veil that is upon their hearts shall be taken away. 
The delusive dreams of the Mohammedan imposture shall 
vanish. The hierarchy of Rome, with all of other names 
that bears its image and breathes its spirit, shall be over- 
thrown. Infidelity will stop her mouth, and philosophy, 
falsely so called, sliall pass away into oblivion. The 
corruptions of Christendom shall be forgotten, and he who 
'^ sits as a refiner and a purifier of silver " shall purge 
away all its dross. Oppression and bondage shall cease ; 
and he who shall ^' judge the poor of the people, and 
save the children of the needy," shall " break in pieces 
the oppressor." Wars shall come to an end from under 
the face of the whole heaven ; the storm of contention 
shall cease ; the tumult of battle shall be heard no more ; 
and there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all God's 
holy mountain. The plenitude of divine influences shall 
descend like rain, and "judgment shall remain in the wil- 
derness, and righteousness in the fruitful field." Like 



376 THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 

the waters that went forth from under the temple, know- 
ledge and holiness shall flow in rivers over the earth j and 
as the sun of nature, while it leads on the seasons and 
regulates the year, alike imparts vigor to the forest and 
fragrance and beauty to the humblest flower that opens 
in its beam, so will the Sun of Rrighteousness diff'use his 
rays over every department of society, and the entire 
economy of human aflfairs. Like the branch which the 
Prophet cast into the waters of Marah, the Gospel shall 
neutralize the sources of misery, and purify the fountains 
of joy. The religion of the Cross will reign triumph- 
antl)^ over the world ; and there shall be one Lord, and 
his name One. The kingdom of darkness well knows 
the efiicacy of the Cross. They have watched its influ- 
ence from the hour when it made a show of them openly 
on Calvary ; they are watching it still, and will hereafter 
observe it, not so much with their present jealousy, as 
with everlasting despair. These opposing hosts, that are 
now alternately advancing and retreating, now triumph- 
ing and now melting away, will ere long come to the 
last conflict. The mighty catastrophe of this wonder- 
ful arrangement for the salvation of men, so early pre- 
dicted and so eagerly looked for, shall be developed, and 
heaven and hell shall stand alike the memorials of the 
divine mercy to its friends, and, to its enemies, of the 
divine justice. The voice of the archangel and the trump 
of God shall sound. The crucified One shall come in 
the glory of his Father and of the holy angels, and the 
holy tribes shall be gathered together and caught up to 
meet the Lord in the air. All characters shall be then 
tried, all hearts revealed, and the final sentence shall go 
forth. Then the triumphs of the Cross shall be com- 
pleted. And when it is thus lifted up, with it the hands, 
and hearts, and heads of the redeemed shall be lifted up, 



THE TIIIUMPHS OF THE CROSS. 377 

and the hands, and hearts, and heads of the unbelieving 
shall be bowed down, and '' the Lord alone shall be 
exalted in that day." 

Such have been, such are, such will be, the triumphs 
of the Cross. It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous 
in our eyes. Great is the mystery of God and godliness. 
It is not the wisdom of the created, but of the uncreated 
One. It is not the power of man, but the mighty power 
of God. It is the Cross — the narrative of the Cross — the 
trutli of the Cross — the love of the Cross — the security of 
the Cross — the holiness of the Cross — the power of the 
Cross — the wonders of the Cross — the Cross triumphant. 
And now, the solemn question is submitted to the con- 
science of every reader, whether he will be for Christ, or 
against him 1 I know the decision of your reason and 
conscience, and stand in doubt only of the decision of 
your heart. I know that the Cross will be triumphant, 
and am solicitous that you should enlist under the ban- 
ners of the all-conquering Prince, and reign with the 
Captain of your salvation in his eternal kingdom. The 
cause is too momentous in itself, and too greatly fraught 
with consequences of everlasting interest to your own 
soul, to allow of any farther indecision. Persist no 
longer in contending with him who is God over all blessed 
forevermore. Break, oh, break away from those who are 
in arms against their gracious Saviour, and let the world 
see that the cause of truth and righteousness, the Cross 
of the Redeemer, have found in you one more advocate 
and friend. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE sinner's excuses REFUTED BY THt CROSi>. 

God has constituted men capable of judging what i.s 
right, not only in respect to other luen, bvU in respect to 
their own character and conduct. He often appeals to 
their own judgment and conscience, whether the course 
they are pursuing is right, and can be defended by them- 
selves ; and if they think it can, he challenges them to 
make their pretensions good. 

Are there none of my readers to whom such an appeal 
as this maybe addressed with strong propriety ? Has not 
the God of heaven revealed to you the greatness and good- 
ness of his own infinite nature, called upon you to give 
him your hearts, and become reconciled to him through 
the great atonement of his Son ? The voice of the Cross 
to all who reject its great salvation is, '' Turn ye, turn ye, 
why will ye die 1" ''Produce your cause, saith the Lord ; 
bring forth your strong reasons, saith the God of Jacob." 
*^ Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou mel" You have 
placed yourselves in a false and untenable position, and 
cannot defend your present course of conduct, save by 
reasons that carry with them their own refutation. 

It is from a conviction that nothing more is necessary, 
in order to show the unreasonableness of the course the 
unbeliever is pursuing, than for him to produce and con- 
sider the strong reasons that are given in defence of it, 



EXCUSES REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 379 

that I venture to hope for his serious attention, while I 
state and consider some of these reasons in the present 
chapter. And let his prayer — let our united prayers — 
ascend to the God of grace, that these reasons may he 
so considered, that he may see that he is without excuse 
before God, and has no time to lose in escaping from 
these delusions, and laying hold of the hope set before 
h im ! 

There is a class of persons, who assign as a reason for 
their not becoming Christians, that they are not so well 
satisfied as they desire to be of the great and fundamental 
truths which the Cross reveals. They do not question that 
the Bible is the word of God, and contains great and 
essential doctrines — doctrines which constitute the essence 
of divine revelation ; that are necessary to its very exist- 
ence ; and that must be believed, loved and obeyed, in 
order to salvation. But they are not decided as to what 
these doctrines are. They tell you that men have differed 
in their views of them, and differ still ; and it ought not 
to be expected that they should commit themselves pre- 
maturely upon subjects of such vital importance. There 
is no doubt that this is one of the reasons which act upon 
a certain class of minds, in producing hesitation and delay 
in the all-important concern of personal religion. We 
do not deny that great importance is to be attached to the 
belief of the truth. There are truths which no man can 
reject, and be a Christian ; and in which all real Chris- 
tians are firmly established. But it is not to be forgotten, 
that a belief of all the truths which God has revealed is 
not indispensable to a man's becoming a Christian, unless 
he is acquainted with them all, and wilfully rejects them. 
Many persons may not understand all that God has reveal- 
ed ; no one man ever fully understood it all. A man 
may know enough to become a better man, and a sincere 



380 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

follower of Christ, without knowing everything. The 
true way of knowing, is to practice what we know. " If 
any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of God." It is the duty of Christians to be 
better acquainted with the truth of God ; but I would be 
slow to say, that no man can be a Christian who has not 
much to learn. The question is not whether you ought 
not to know more, but whether you do not know enough 
to leave you without excuse for not becoming a child of 
God ? I am satisfied to leave this question with your own 
conscience, " To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth 
it not, to him it is sin." You shall judge yourself by 
this simple rule. There is no reader, even of these 
humble pages, whose conscience is satisfied with the plea 
of ignorance ; and he that makes this plea will have a 
fearful account to render. If this is the great difficulty" 
in the way of yom- salvation, and this alone is shutting 
you out of the kingdom of God, there is one thought 
you would do well to consider. While you hesitate, God 
is deciding. While you delay, death hastens. While 
you remain halting between conflicting opinions, the 
day draws nigh, when " the servant who knew his 
Lord's will and did it notj shall be beaten with many 
stripes." 

There is another class of persons who allege as the 
great reason for not becoming Christians, that they have not 
time. This reason is fatal to piety, if it is true. Religion 
requires time. It requires fixed and steady thought. It 
can never be obtained by a slight and cursory view of its 
importance, nor without drawing toward it the warmest 
affections of the heart. If there is any man who has no 
thne to attend to it, I see not but his prospects for eternity 
are dark and gloomy to the last degree. 

Time is unspeakably precious. It is the gift of God, 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 381 

and no wealth of the world can purchase it. A dying" 
queen once exclaimed, '' Millions of money for a mo- 
ment of timef^^ We may well pity the man who has 
no time to become a Christian. 

It would be strange if God had so ordered the affairs 
of men that they have not time for all that he requires 
of them. He does require them to repent and believe 
the Gospel ; and he never would have required this, on 
such fearful pains and penalties, without giving them 
time to attend to this great duty. He has told them that 
the great business and end of human life is to fear God 
and keep his commandments ; and, whatever else they 
pursue, to " seek Jirst the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness." He has given them time for this object 
more than for any other purpose in the world. He 
knows their earthly wants and has given them time for 
these ; and he knows their spiritual wants, and has 
given them time for these. If men will devote all their 
time to the pursuits of earth, and have none left for God 
and eternity, they do it in opposition to his commands 
and counsel, in violation of the wise arrangements of his 
providence, and at their own peril. I say they do this 
in violation of the wise arrangements of his providence. 
Men who conscientiously devote time to this great work, 
have never found that it interferes with other duties, but 
rather prepares them for, and assists them in, performing 
other duties, and secures the divine blessing upon the 
work of their hands. They save time by devoting a due 
portion of it to the concerns of eternity. The true diffi- 
culty with those who complain that they have no time 
for the business of religion is, that they have not just im- 
pressions of the importance of religion. Men always find 
time for what they think the most important; and 
whenever the duties of religion appear to them the most 



382 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

important, they will no longer plead that they have no 
time to attend to this great concern. 

How much time do you devote to this great subject ? 
Is it an hour in the dayl Is it even one day out of 
seven? Oris God's holy Sabbath so embarrassed and 
divided by the cares and thoughts of business, that when 
you go to the sanctuar}'', your mind is so pre-occupied by 
the world, and so shut out from all heavenly influences, 
that an angel from heaven could not penetrate your con- 
science ? Besides, does it not strike your minds as some- 
what extraordinary reasoning for a man to say, " Human 
life is so short and uncertain, and I must die so soon, that 
I have no time to think of God and eternity ?" Jlre men 
sincere who reason thus? The time will come when this 
reasoning will hold good, and it may come soon ; but, 
thanks to forbearing mercy, that melancholy hour has 
not yet arrived ! Such reasoning sounds like a voice 
from the grave. A man who can soberly reason thus, 
must feel himself to be a dying man. On your bed of 
death, you may well say, " I have no time to attend to 
religion now. Little did I think that my sun would set 
so soon, and go down in never-ending night!" We do 
indeed sometimes hear this reasoning from the trembling 
lips of the aged sinner. I have heard it, too, urged 
with deep and bitter sincerity by men who have grieved 
God's Holy Spirit, and are given up to hopeless despair. 
Such persons not unfrequently say, '' My time has gone 
by. It is too late for me to think of heaven now !" But 
this is not the reader's apology. No : he is in the bloom 
of childhood ; or in the vigor and hopes of youth ; or 
amid the enterprises and acquisitions of middle life. 
Strange to say, those whose morning is clear and serene, 
and whose mid-day has scarcely been intercepted by a 
cloud, are urging the want of time and opportunity as 



RiZ:iUTED BY THE CROSS. 333 

one of the reasons why they do not become Christians ! 
But is it so 1 No, it is not so. There is not a man that 
lives, who has not time to prepare to die. 

There is another class of persons who urge as the reason 
for their neglect of religion, that they have known very 
many excellent people who were not Christians. The mean- 
ing of this objection is nothing more nor less than this, 
that men may he very excellent men without religion. If 
this be so, the consequence is that religion is not neces- 
sary. But does the objector mean to say this ? For if 
men, however excellent they may be, cannot be saved 
without the religion of the Gospel, their excellence avails 
them nothing. 

We do not deny that, in one view, there are many 
excellent people who are not Christians. There are kind 
husbands, careful fathers, dutiful children, excellent mer- 
chants, excellent mechanics, excellent scholars, vigorous 
magistrates, and worthy citizens, who are not Christians. 
Some of them have a great many more excellent qualities 
than some who profess to be the disciples and followers 
of Jesus Christ. But by the very terms of the objection, 
they are not Christians. They lack this ^' one thing.'' 
Their excellence does not flow from any religious prin- 
ciple. They never act from a sense of religious duty, or 
from any regard to the authority and love of God. Now 
we complain, not so much of what such men are, as of 
what they are not. We say they have deficiencies, which, 
if unsupplied, leave them " weighed in the balance and 
found wanting" when their character comes under review 
before the last tribunal. I said, we complain not of what 
they are. But I must modify this thought. In our 
estimate of moral character, we are never to lose sight of 
the truth, that '' he that is not for Christ is against him," 
and he that does not love God is liis enemy. The 



384 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

declared enemy of God does no more than refuse to love 
him. This is the source of his hostility, that he refuses 
to love. He carries within him a secret alienation of 
heart to the character, government and Gospel of the 
ever-blessed God. The most thorough infidel is notmore 
at heart the enemy of God than such a man. And is 
this a small sin ? Is it not the sin that infallibly destroys 
the soul? Painful as the thought is, when these excel- 
lent people who are not Christians come to die, the God 
of mercy will say to them, " Depart ye cursed into ever- 
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." 
There are multitudes of such excellent people who are 
not Christians, who have long since been turned into hell 
with all " the nations that forget God." 

There is another class of persons who urge as a reason 
for their not becoming Christians, that Christians them- 
selves do not live up to their profession. It is no part of 
our business to justify or palliate the sins of good men. 
God does not palliate them ; they themselves do not 
palliate them ; and they have no wish that they should 
be palliated. While it is altogether right and reasonable 
that they should be without sin, and while God requires 
them to be so, the melancholy fact is, there never was a 
man from the days of Adam down to the present hour, 
who was perfect in holiness. ''If we say we have no 
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 
It ought not therefore to be matter of surprise that good 
men are not angels : this is just the representation which 
the Scriptures give of their imperfect character. '' We 
have no objection to perfect Christians, if we could see 
them ; but all whom we ever 5^et have seen, had some- 
thing daily to confess and l3e forgiven, and much need 
to grow better." 

We may indeed wonder that Christians are not better 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 385 

than they are. When we consider their obhgations to 
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; when we consider the great love of God toward 
them, and the means they enjoy of making continual 
advances in the divine life ; when we reflect ujjon the 
exceeding great and precious promises for their encour- 
agement and consolation, and upon the many weighty 
and tender inducements to '^ forget the things that are 
behind and reach forth to those that are before ;" when 
we advert to their own hopes, and enjoyments, and pro- 
fessions, and covenant engagements ; when we think of 
that mercy-seat to which they have access, that Saviour 
who '' of God is made to them sanctification as well as 
righteousness," that church to whom their sin is such 
a reproach, and that world to which their untender walk 
and conversation is such a stumbling-blook ; we may 
indeed wonder that they walk not more worthy of their 
vocation, and are not bitterly dissatisfied with themselves 
in proportion as they come short of the glory of God. 
But in another view, we may well wonder they are not 
a thousand fold wo7'se than they are. They have by na- 
ture ^' an evil heart of unbelief;" a heart ''deceitful 
above all things and desperately wicked ;" a heart prone 
to pride, envy, anger, sloth, ingratitude, rashness, folly, 
and every form of evil affection. They inhabit a body 
weak, frail, suffering, nervous and irritable, sometimes 
excited, and sometimes depressed, and are of like pas- 
sions with every unrenewed man. They dwell in a 
world, too, where they are exposed and tempted to sin on 
every side ; where they have trial, on the one hand, of 
vain flatteries, and on the other of cruel mockings ; where 
favor, frowns, authority and fashion would seduce them 
from their integrity ; and where it were not strange if 
their faith sometimes wavers. Opulence and honor 
17 



386 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

tempt them to forbidden paths. Riches increeise, and 
they set their hearts upon them. Business occupies and 
perplexes them, and cools their zeal. The enjoyments 
of sense and the allurements of pleasure fascinate them. 
Spirtual enemies beset them in every guise, and under 
every cloak of trea-chery, in order to take every advan- 
tage of their present state of moral imperfection, and to 
plunge them in darkness, doubts and disobedience. 
The great adversary knows that when they wander from 
God, they are as weak as other men ; and he does not fail 
to employ his power and subtilty to overcome them. 
They are always watched and tempted by him, when 
they are the least fitted to shun or resist his temptations. 
He is by no means ignorant of the weak and accessible 
points in their character ; he knows their tempers and 
circumstances, and can tell, often better than they them- 
selves, the " sin that doth most easily beset them," and 
stands ready, by his fiery darts, to kindle into a blaze the 
combustible materials within them. It is indeed a wonder 
of mercy that they are not a thousand fold worse than 
they are. And it is owing to nothing but the riches of 
that mercy, restraining their corruptions, preventing 
them in the hour of temptatiouj watching over them witli 
a father's love and care, placing underneath them tlie 
everlasting arms, and compassing them about with favor 
as with a shield, that the}'^ walk in safety and in peace. 
We do not appreciate the effort, the constant, the amaz- 
ing effort of divine power and faithfulness that makes 
them what they are. Grace does not complete its work 
in a day. The man who is naturally covetous does not 
eradicate the love of money by a single effort. The man 
who is naturally high-spirited and overbearing does not 
imbibe all the meekness and gentleness of a little child 
without much watchfulness and prayer, and many a 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 387 

scene of mortification and defeat. The man who has 
never learned to govern his tongue, nor repress his re- 
sentment, nor curb his impatience, nor subdue his 
tnnidity, nor rouse himself from his sloth and luxury, 
nor control his indiscretions, before his conversion, may 
have made greater and more visible improvement in the 
opposite virtues, after he becomes a Christian, than the 
man who, though dead in sin, is naturally cautious and 
gentle, or bold, active and abstemious. Not only is it 
possible that you expect from Christians more than you 
will ever realize, but that you watch for their halting ; 
are eagle-eyed to observe and aggravate their faults ; eat 
''up the sin of God's people, as you eat bread;" nay, 
more, that you condescend to the devil's work by pro- 
voking, deceiving, ensnaring, and tempting them to sin, 
on purpose to triumph in their fall, and in their wicked- 
ness find the miserable excuse for your own incorrigible 
impenitence. 

But even after all the faults of Christians, and all your 
eagerness to discover and magnify them, do you not find 
them Christians still 1 Did the men of the world possess 
their character, would you not commend it 1 Were the 
Christians to whom you refer in all respects just what 
they are, and had never named the name of Christ before 
men, would you not think and speak well of them 1 
Would you not think the community the losers, the moral 
atmosphere less pure, and the tone of moral principle less 
elevated and commanding, were there no such Christians 
in the world? There may be dishonest men, deceiving 
and lying men, impure men, men who ''make a gain 
of godliness," in every church. There may be self- 
deceived men, who have come into the church in an 
unguarded hour, and under the mere impulse of animal 
excitement. Of such persons we have no reasonable 



388 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

hope that they will " witness a good confession," or, 
when hardly pressed, will so demean themselves as not to 
bring reproach on that sacred name by which they are 
called. And there may be real Christians, who fall, and 
cover themselves and the church with sackcloth. But 
their wickedness is no reason for your neglecting the 
Gospel. They are not the standard of piety. Even were 
all the Christians in the world hypocrites^ their hypocrisy 
would not release you from the obligation of becoming the 
child of God. If you wait until Christians are what they 
ought to be, you will wait a long time. Death will 
make fearful inroads in our world, and one generation of 
the godly after another will descend to the tomb, and 
ascend to their Father's house, before they will see him 
as he is, and be like him. Many who now name the 
name of Christ, will stumble, and fall, and perish ; while 
all his true disciples, through grace helping them, will 
still travel on in the straight and narrow way, and, after 
many sins, and deep repentance, and many discourage- 
ments and trials^ having '^ washed their robes, and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb," will enter into 
the heavenly city ; and you^ who have made their sins 
the reason of your impenitence, will be left to mourn 
that you have stumbled over their imperfections into tlie 
fire that shall never be quenched. 

There is also a class of persons who urge as a reason 
for their hesitation in this great matter, that they shall 
not hold out, if they undertake it ever so earnestly. 
They read in the Scriptures such passages as these : 
'^ If any man draw back, my soul hath no pleasure in 
him ;" " He that putteth his hand to the plough, and 
looketh back, is not fit for the kingdom of heaven." 
Declarations like these alarm them, and they tremble at 
the thought of entering upon the Christian life. They 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 389 

have so many melancholy examples of apostacy before 
their eyes, that their fears have become predominant, 
and they have resolved not to do as others have 
done, lest '' their last state should be worse than the 
' first." 

There is some plausibility in this reasoning. No man 
is justified in turning his attention to religion lightly, or 
with any other views than of persevering to the last. No 
man is justified in thinking of it as a secondary concern, 
or one that may be pursued without effort, and in which 
there are no dangers to be guarded against, no enemies 
to be resisted, no trials to be encountered, no sacrifices to 
be made, no difficulties to be overcome; or one in which 
a final failure is not attended with disastrous conse- 
quences. 

But shall the fear of not being able to hold out prevent 
any man from becoming the true follower of Christ? 
Will he ever hold out, if he does not begin ? Will he 
ever travel on in the narrow way that leads to life, if he 
never enters it 1 What if he waits half a century ; will 
he be any nearer gaining the victory, if he does not put 
on the armor ] What if all the Christians now on earth 
and in heaven had been prevented from going to Christ by 
such reasoning as this ? What if every impenitent sinner 
should be prevented from going to him by such apprehen- 
sions 1 If the reason is justifiable, and holds good in any 
case, it is justifiable and holds good in every case ; and 
there is an end to true religion in our world. The diffi- 
culty does not actually lie in the fear of falling away 
when once a man has entered upon the Christian career; 
it lies deeper than this : it is his reluctance to enter it. 
He foresees the obstacles ; he knows that if he once 
begins^ he must persevere, and will persevere, and there- 
fore he hesitates at taking the first step. He is not wil- 



390 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

ling to give the Cross the first place in his affections ; to 
root out every idol ; to renounce every other master ; to 
forsake the world, and give up whatever is inconsistent 
with his will and glory ; to come just as he is, a lost and 
helpless sinner, and put his trust in the Cross alone for 
salvation. Without doing this, the first step is not taken. 
Let this difficulty be removed, and though prayer, and 
pains, and watchfulness, and snares, and dangers may 
attend him all his way through the wilderness, he has 
the promise that ^' He who has begun a good work 
within him, will carry it on to the day of Jesus Christ." 
And though heaven and earth may pass away, not one 
jot, or one tittle, of all that God has promised shall fail. 
The man who once enters the way of life, will go for- 
ward because propelled by almighty grace. God will 
not suffer him ever so to break away from the Cross, as 
finally to perish. Grace will not only keep him if he 
remains faithful, but will make him faithful. But for 
this, we know you would not hold out. And here lies 
the fallacy of your excuse. You trust not to Christ in 
the promise. You expect to faint and be weary, and 
utterly fail, because you think not of Him who " giveth 
power to the faint, and to them that have no might he 
increaseth strength." You tremble at dangers and dis- 
couragements, because you forget Him who "gathers the 
lambs in his arms, and carries them in his bosom, and 
gently leads the weak ones of the flock." You fear to 
commit yourself, because you have overlooked the decla- 
ration, " My grace is sufficient for thee." 

There are not a few persons, also, who urge as a reason 
for their not becoming pious, that thei7' companions and 
friends are not Christians, They do not like the idea of 
being singular, and standing alone. They live in an 
irreligious family, and are surrounded with irreligious 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 391 

associates. Those with whom they are in the habit of 
famihar intercourse scoff at religion, and ridicule all 
serious attention to the concerns of the soul. Their gay 
acquaintances will think it very strange of them, if they 
forsake their society, and cast in their lot with the society 
of the godly. 

Some of my readers would be very ungrateful to urge 
such an excuse as this. You were educated and live in 
the society of God's people, where the deepest interest is 
felt in your spiritual welfare, and where every sorrow 
would be diminished, and every joy quickened, by your 
becoming a follower of the Lamb. You have not to do as 
Abraham did, " get out from your country, and your kin- 
dred, and your father^ s house,^^ in order to become united 
with the visible people of God. You have no impious 
relatives to stifle in their birth your first convictions, but 
rather those whose tears would fall, whose prayers would 
rise, and whose hearts would leap for joy, at the first inti- 
mation that you ^'remember your Creator in the days of 
your youth," and are setting your face toward Zion. 

And how do those of you who have associations less 
favorable to piety than these, k7iow that those around you 
will feel the wound, and be grieved? and what right 
have you to say they will ridicule and ensnare you in 
your course toward heaven ? Have they done it ? Have 
they threatened to do so ? Have they told you that you 
may count on their hostility ? If not, may you not be 
doing great injustice to their character, to presume that 
they are such " enemies of God and all righteousness," 
such " children of tlie devil," as to scoff and sneer, 
because you would fain make the Cross your refuge, and 
the God of heaven your portion 1 What would you say, 
if you knew they were indulging the same unworthy 
suspicions of you; and were now hesitating between 



392 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

Christ and the world, and balancing the question Ix'tween 
heaven and hell, through the apprehension of your oppo- 
sition and raillery ? Who can tell but your indifference 
to this great subject is the reason with ^y^em for neglecting 
it ; and that, notwithstanding this, they may have firmness 
enough to resist and overcome it, and enter into the king- 
dom of God, while you are cast out ? And even if it be 
otherwise, who can tell but through your piety they may 
become pious, and that both you and they may yet be 
found traveling together in the straight and narrow way 
that leads to life, as you have been in the broad way that 
leads to death ? 

But what if it be not so ? Have you never learned 
that it is ^' through much tribulation, that you " may be 
called to '^ enter the kingdom of heaven?" Have you 
never heard of those whose faithfulness to Christ and his 
Gospel exposed them to " trial of cruel mockings and 
scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments'?" 
Did you never read of those who '^were stoned, and 
sawn asunder, and tempted, and slain with the sword, 
and wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being 
destitute, afflicted, tormented," because they held fast 
the testimony of Jesus 1 Shall the sneers of men, or 
their mockery or rancor, drive you to perdition ? Were 
it not easier and better meekly to endure their reproaches 
now, than to endure them, and your own, and the re- 
proaches of the universe, forever 1 Will you go to ever- 
lasting burnings forfear of beinglaughed at as an enthusiast 
by those who have neither the fear of God before their 
eyes, nor the love of Jesus Christ in their hearts ? Is all 
your civility due to a world that lieth in wickedness, and 
none to the Saviour of lost men ? Are no compliances 
and concessions demanded by the cause of truth and 
righteousness 1 Is it of no consequence that you be con 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 393 

dilatory to the God that made you ? It is not wonderful 
that you should desire to conciliate the esteem and favor 
of men, but they are purchased at too dear a rate by for- 
feiting the favor of God and the loss of the soul. 

There are also those who are deterred from becoming 
Christians, because they knoio not if God will accept them. 
When we urge men, who are anxious for their salva- 
tion, to become reconciled to God ; when we cut them 
off from every other refuge, and tell them, without 
delay, to repent and believe the Gospel ; they often be- 
come benighted and distressed, and say that they are so 
great sinners that it is very doubtful whether they will 
ever be accepted. 

Such persons want more encouragement than even the 
Cross of Christ can give them. That Cross sets before 
them the fullness and freeness of the great salvation. On 
the authority of God, it invites and urges them to come 
to Christ that they may have life. It instructs them that 
the ground of their acceptance is not in themselves, but 
out of themselves, and in the work of Christ alone. It 
assures them that the greatest sinner, as well as the least 
sinner, if he comes to Jesus, will find a cordial and ready 
acceptance with God ; because neither the greatness nor 
the smallness of his transgressions has anything to do 
with the matter of his acceptance, and that God requires 
him simply to fall in with his own method of mercy, and 
receive Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel. Where, 
then, is there any room for the objection, ^^I know not if 
God will accept me?" Such a man knows that if 
he goes to Christ he will be accepted, and that if he 
stays away from Christ he will not be accepted. Yet 
this does not satisfy him. Nay, this discourages and de- 
presses him. The encouragement he Avants is, to be 
comforted in his sins, and to be told that there is some 
17* 



394 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

promise in the word of God for persons in his anxious 
condition, and while he is persevering in his agitated and 
remorseful impeniteBce. Therefore I have said he wants 
more encouragement than the Cross can give him. 
The Cross cannot give him the least encouragement so 
long as he stays away from Christ, grieves his Spirit, and 
persists in a rebellion not the less aggravated because it 
is enlightened and anxious. Such persons profess to be 
seeking and striving to enter the kingdom of heaven ; 
but it is no unusual thing for them to feel that they are 
at heart unfriendly to Jesus Christ, and to be themselves 
conscious that they choose death rather than life. But 
whether they are conscious of it or not, we know the fact 
is so. And yet they are anxious for the salvation of their 
souls. But what does the anxiety of all those who reject 
the Gospel salvation amount to, more than an earnest 
desire to be delivered from hell, and, at the same time, 
maintain their alienation from God ? This is their em- 
barrassment, and we cannot relieve it, nor have we any 
desire to do so if we could. This is their reason for not 
becoming Christians. And who can answer it ? So long 
as those who feel and reason thus, continue to plead this 
reason for not becoming the followers of Christ, their case 
is hopeless ; and the longer they remain in this state, 
the farther are they from becoming Christians, and the 
less likely to become Christians at all. 

There are still others who say, I cannot become a 
Christian, 

You do not mean, by this, that it is an impossible thing, 
even by the grace of God, for you ever to become an 
altered man. If so, to you these lessons from the Cross 
are vain ; in vain has God sent his Son to die, his Spirit 
to convince, his ordinances to quicken ; in vain his love 
expostulates and urges you to repentance ; for, after all. 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 395 

you must ^' die in your sins." You probably mean, that 
in your present state of mind, and with your present char- 
acter, it is impossible for you to repent and believe the 
Gospel. There is no disputing- this ; it is too obvious. 
So long as you are the enemy of God, you cannot be his 
friend ; so long as you love sin, 3^ou cannot turn from it; 
and while you reject Christ, you cannot come to him. 
There is a real, absolute impossibility in loving and 
hating, in receiving and rejecting, at the same time. But is 
this state of enmity and unbelief a right state of mind, and 
can it be justified ? If not, and this is the only difficulty in 
the way of your becoming Christians, why do you cherish 
it ? and why, in defiance to all instruction, rebuke and 
admonition — all the expostulations of love and mercy, all 
the strivings of God's Spirit, and all the sober convic- 
tions of your own conscience — do you thus summon all 
your powers of reasoning to defend it 1 Why not yield 
to these admonitions, and frankly confess that this sinful 
state of mind is no excuse 1 God may, and must, and 
does call upon you to exercise a different spirit, and one 
more in accordance with what you yourself cannot help 
seeing to be your known duty. It is not easy to perceive 
how a man can be '^ condemned out of his own mouth," 
if not by such reasoning as this. 

Perhaps you will reply, that you are sensible of this, 
and that, while )^ou know this guilty state of mind is all 
wrong, yet you cannot subdue it. This is altogether 
another matter. If you are sensible of this, and know 
that this your strongest and last fortress exposes and con- 
demns you, is it not marvelous that you consent to urge 
it, and to impose upon yourself, and fortify your obduracy, 
by reasoning which you know to be unsound, and in 
which you yourself have no confidence 1 Were it not 
better to be speechless, as you certainly will be at the 



396 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

last day, if you have nothing more to plead than this self 
condemning apology ! Were it not better to feel, and to 
say, that you have no excuse, and to bow down before 
God in deep self-loathing and reproach, and cry out, 
Guilty ! guilty ! lost ! lost ! lost ! " Lord, save, or I 
perish!" There is difficulty in overcoming this state of 
mind — a difficulty that is insuperable except by mighty 
grace. It is a melancholy truth, that the tendency to sin 
in the human heart is invincibly strong ; and that no man 
ever arrived at the possession of true godliness but by a 
process of feeling that gave him painful consciousness of 
the opposition of his heart to God, and his entire depend- 
ence on the Holy Spirit. A deep and impressive sense 
of this truth lies at the basis of all genuine conviction. 
But this is not the ground you occupy. You are plead- 
ing your dependence on the Spirit of God as an excuse, 
and as a reason that justifies you for not becoming a 
Christian. This, no man in a deeply solemn state of 
mind ever does. The very fact that you are urging it as 
perhaps your strongest reason for continuing in impeni- 
tence, shows that it is insincerely urged, and that the 
deep and humbling import of it you have never felt. 
Would to God that you did feel it, and that it sunk so 
deeply into your heart as to turn your strength into 
weakness, your hopes into despair, and your self-confi- 
dence into that reliance on almighty grace which in- 
spires you with new hopes and new strength, and for 
once and forever teaches you to say, *' W^ithout Christ, I 
can do nothing !" Heaven is high and you cannot reach 
it ; but there is a ladder, like the one which .Jacob saw, 
on which you may ascend, worm as you are, even to the 
bright pavilion where Jehovah dwells. Nay, there is an 
open way into the holiest of all by the blood of Christ. 
*' I am the way," says he ; " no man cometh unto the 



REFUTED BV THE CROSS. 397 

Father but by me." If you reply, you cannot even come 
to Christ without imparted help, this also is true. The 
Saviour himself declares, " No man ca?i come to me 
except the Father which hath sent me draAv him." You 
cannot feel this truth too deeply. God '' Avill have mercy 
on whom he will have mercy." He is under no obliga- 
tions to make you '^ willing in the day of his power." 
You are in his hands just as the clay is in the hands of 
the potter. He may leave you to your own chosen way 
of death. He has a perfect right to do so, and may be 
provoked to do so by your wicked excuses. Not until 
you see and acknowledge this sovereign right of God, 
have you any such vieAvs and feelings as are befitting 
you as a lost sinner, and an unjustifiable rebel against the 
King of the universe. Had you some such views as 
these — had you such a sense of your vileness, ill-desert 
and helplessness, as to prostrate you in the dust before 
God, and make you feel that you are sinking in deep 
waters, and that nothing but almighty grace can take your 
feet from the horrible pit and the miry clay, and set them 
upon a rock — these vain excuses would appear to you as 
" refuges of lies." There Avould be hope for you then. 
You would not be far from the kingdom of heaven. Did 
you once glory in your infirmity, that the power of 
'' Christ might rest upon you," so far from standing and 
complaining of difficulty, you would see that it is an easy 
thing to become a Christian, and wonder why you had 
not become so long ago. The work is done when you 
once feel that, though you are perfect weakness, you have 
omnipotence to rest upon. Burdened as you may be 
with sin, oppressed as you may be with doubt and fear, 
blinded as your dark mind may be, and miserable and 
undone — if, under this burden, this darkness, this^wicked 
impotency, and these mighty woes you can repair to the 



398 THE SINNER'S EXCUSES 

Cross, you shall not be sent empty away. Tears and 
sighs, and a broken heart, find a place at the mercy- 
seat. '' When the poor and needy seek water and there 
is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord 
will hear them ; I the God of Israel will not forsake 
them." 

Such are some of the sinner's excuses for his continued 
impenitence. Do they hold good in view of the Cross ? 
Do they justify him in the view of his own conscience ? 
Will they justify him on the bed of death ? Will he 
plead them at the bar of judgment? Has he any good 
reason for not becoming a Christian? Must he not see 
that it is the most reasonable thing in the world that he 
should cease to contend with God, and no longer hold 
out against the claims of his redeeming love ? Is there 
not some strange and infatuating delusion influencing his 
mind? When he reasons thus, is it not because his 
understanding is darkened, his judgment blinded, his 
reason warped ? No sober man makes such gross blun- 
ders in reasoning in respect to his temporal interests ; and 
whence is it that he is so irrational in respect to those that 
are eternal ? Has not the great adversary more to do 
with such a state of mind than men are aware of? Is he 
not doing all in his power to prevent the effect of the 
Gospel, and to blind the minds of those who do not be- 
lieve ? It is difficult to explain the fact, that men capable 
of reasoning, reason so wide of the truth, and come to 
such strange conclusions on the subject of personal 
religion. The Cross of Christ solemnly warns you 
against these devices. It will be no relief to you in the 
future world, that you were led away by these moral 
delusions ; but you will rather wonder how your usual 
prudence and sagacity should have so forsaken you. It 
is a fearful thing thus to harden your heart, to add sin to 



REFUTED BY THE CROSS. 399 

sin, and weary yourself with committing iniquity, till 
you become a vessel of wrath filled to destruction. You 
must soon go from these days of mercy to the day of 
judgment ; from the light of time to the still stronger 
light of eternity. Abandon, then, these indefensible for- 
tresses, these weak defences of the carnal mind, these 
refuges of lies, and flee for refuge to the hope set before 
you in the Gospel. Bow to the authority, be attracted 
by the love, of the Cross. Receive that Saviour, and in- 
stead of struggling any longer with Omnipotence, and 
striving against his Spirit, lift your eye to him with desire 
and hope. Then the dark cloud will be gone ; the Sun 
of Righteousness will shine ; and you will have peace 
with God through Jesus Christ. You will no longer 
exhibit what ought to have been an anomaly in a world 
of reasonable beings — a wicked man rebelling against a 
good God — a weak and finite creature contending with a 
God of infinite power — an unhappy and -miserable crea- 
ture opposing the only means of blessedness — a lost 
sinner turning away from the only Saviour — a rational 
existence, glorying in his reason, and yet calling in 
question the reasonableness of falling in with that method 
of mercy by which infinite wisdom and love are honored 
in the salvation of men. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 

As the present chapter closes this volume, I propose to 
devote it to some considerations which I may not with- 
hold from those of my readers that have long known and 
long rejected the truth and grace made manifest by the 
Cross of Christ. In numberless forms of secret and overt 
iniquity, men have disregarded the divine authority and 
abused the divine goodness ; but these are all venial 
offences compared with the sin of unbelief. This is the 
sin which, of all others, exposes them to the wrath and 
curse of God — the sin which it most becomes them to 
bewail and detest ; it is emphatically the sin of which the 
Spirit of Truth most deeply convinces those of its guilty 
perpetrators who are brought to repentance. ** When 
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will convince the 
world of sin,^^ And i/;Ay will he convince the world of 
sin 1 Not because they are by nature children of wrath, 
not because their heart is deceitful above all things and des- 
perately wicked — though of this apostate and guilty char- 
acter he does convince them — but because they believe 
not on the Son of God. This is the' "front of their 
offending." In the deliberate judgment of that Saviour 
by whom the actions of men are weighed, it stands forth 
as the enormity of their crime, that " they believe not on 
Him." It was a fearful crime to crucify the Son of God. 

" I asked the Heavens, What foe to God hath done 
,This unexampled deed ? The Heavens exclaim, 



THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 401 

*^Twas man ! and we, in horror, snatched the sun 
From such a spectacle of guilt and shame.' 

" I asked the Sea : the Sea in fury boiled, 
And answered with his voice of storms, ' 'Twas man f 
My waves in panic at his crime recoiled, 
Disclos'd the abyss, and from the centre ran.' 

" I asked the Earth : the Earth replied, aghast, 
' 'Twas man ! and such strange pangs my bosom rent. 
That still 1 groan and shudder at the past.' 
To man, gay, smiling, thoughtless man,l went. 
And ask'd him next : He turn'd a scornful eye. 
Shook his proud head, and deigned me no reply." 



Unbelief " crucifies him afresh." This is emphatically 
the sin of man; the sin which even devils have not per- 
petrated, and which remains the foul stain upon the 
character of the world where the Saviour died, and 
where we dwell. 

Not to receive the salvation purchased by the Cross of 
Christ, appears, at first view, to be a negative sin, and 
one simply of omission. Many persons regard it as the 
mere want of faith, and hence it seems to them a com- 
paratively harmless thing. Nor may it be denied, that if 
unbelief consists in the mere absence of faith, there are 
many supposable instances in which it is certainly very 
harmless. It is a mere nothing, and has no moral quality 
whatever ; for there can be no criminality in mere nega- 
tion, or want of volition. But there is no such thing as this 
in the moral universe. There is, indeed, no harm in some 
of mankind not believing. This the apostle teaches, when 
he inquires concerning the heathen nations, *' How shall 
they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" Those 
who have never heard of Christ cannot be blamed for not 
hearing, or for not believing. There is therefore something 
in unbelief more criminal than this mere want of faith. 



402 THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 

Nor does unbelief consist in speculative infidelity merely. 
Speculative infidelity involves it; but the spirit of unbelief, 
in all its positive activity and energy, is often found where 
speculative infidelity has no place, and where men have 
no doubts of the truth of Christianity. Nor may it be con- 
fidently aflfirmed that unbelief consists in that diffidence 
of one's good estate and acceptance with God, of vrhich 
there are so many examples in men who give evidence 
of conversion. It may not be true that, in the same pro- 
portion in which a man doubts of his adoption into the 
divine family, he is an unbeliever ; nor, on the other 
hand, that, in the same proportion in which he has no 
doubts of his acceptance, he is a believer. Unbelief 
is not incompatible with presumptuous assurance ; while 
there may be true faith, though weak and imperfect, 
where there is much diffidence and fear, many clouds, 
and deep darkness. 

Unbelief is the opposite of belief: it is disbelief. It is 
the act of the mind rejecting the salvation of the Cross. 
'^ He that is not with me,'' saith the Saviour, " is against 
me." Where his salvation is not the object of com- 
placency and love, it is the object of aversion and hatred. 
The very indifference of men toward it, arises from a 
secret and unavowed hostility to its claims. What is 
indifiference to the Gospel, but a refusal to love it? and 
what do its declared enemies more than requite it with 
such refusal ? When a man from the heart believes it, 
he receives, loves and obeys it ; when he disbelieves, he 
sincerely and heartily rejects it. This the Scriptures 
represent to be the nature of unbelief. " He came to his 
own, and his own received him not; but to as many as 
received him he gave the power to become the sons of 
God, even to them that believe on his name.^^ '' Did ye 
never read in the Scriptures that the stone which the 



THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 403 

builders rejected^ the same is become the head of the 
corner?" "- But first, the Son of Man must be rejected 
of this generation." The scribes and lawyers rejected the 
counsel of God against themselves. Sucli is the view 
given of unbelief in several of the parables in the evan- 
gelical history, and particularly the parable of the mar- 
riage feast, the Gospel supper, and the husbandman and 
the vineyard. Our blessed Lord describes this sin in that 
memorable declaration to the Jews, '' Ye will not come 
to me that ye might have life." This is the true char- 
acter of unbelief. It is rejecting and opposing, with 
all the heart, the Gospel of the grace of God. It is re- 
sisting its truth, rebelling against its authority, refusing 
its mercy, opposing its terms, and rejecting its holy sal- 
vation. Though multitudes do this, who have no just 
impressions of the wickedness of so doing, yet is it their 
great sin, their damning sin, and the sin that binds the 
guilt of all their other sins upon them. There must, 
therefore, be something peculiarly aggravated in this sin, 
whether we can discover it or not. And, if we mistake not, 
there are things discoverable in it, which may help us to 
some just views of its enormity. What are these things 1 
It is perfectly obvious that unbelief is a sin against 
great degrees of knowledge in regard to the obligation and 
duty of men as sinners. Sin is a violation of our obliga- 
tions, whether those obligations are known or unknown ; 
for even " he that knew not his master's will, and did it 
not," was to be ''beaten," though with "few stripes." 
In its highest and most aggravated forms, it is the violation 
of obligations that are known. " To him that knoweth 
to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." .Nothing 
so much aggravates the sins of men as light and know- 
ledge ; yet are these nowhere so concentrated as in the Cross 
of Christ. The heathen have little knowledge, and 



404 THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 

therefore they have, compared with those who dv/ell in 
Christian lands, little sin. All that is excellent and lovely 
in the character of that great and good Being, who is 
himself the author of the Christian revelation — all that 
is affecting and solemn in the relations which exist be- 
tween him and the creatures he has made — all that is 
binding in the precepts and prohibitions of his law, and 
all that is odious and vile in transgression — is most clearly 
and distinctly set before the mind in the teachings of the 
Cross. Be the precept what it may which the unbeliever 
violates, the Cross enforces it by the purest and the 
strongest light that ever shone, or ever will shine, on the 
minds of men. No man can disregard the claims of the 
Gospel, except from a strength and vigor of wickedness 
which no divine instruction can check or subdue. It is 
impossible for him to disregard them, and sin at any 
common rate. With all their unnatural and brutal pol- 
lution, Sodom and Gomorrah never sinned as Chorazin 
and Bethsaida sinned, as every unbeliever in the Cross 
in Christian lands sins. Such a man shows that he loves 
darkness rather than light ; he shows that he loves to sin, 
and that he means to sin, in defiance of all the claims of 
truth and duty, and at every hazard. The terms on 
which the crucified Saviour offers freely to save men 
are, that they shall forsake their sins, and submit them- 
selves to his authority and grace. The salvation he offers, 
and which they may have for the taking, consists, in no 
small degree, in the deliverance it effects from the reign- 
ing power of sin ; and, in rejecting the offer, what do 
they but practically justify all their former sins — nay, 
repeat and glory in them, and virtually declare that, in 
defiance of all their knowledge of God's will, they have 
no present purpose ever to perform what he requires, or 
leave imdone that which he forbids ? 



THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 405 

In estimating the wickedness of rejecting the Cross, 
there is also to be taken into the account the persevering 
resistance which the unbeliever makes to all the calls and 
motives to repentance with which the Gospel is so richly 
fraught. These are very many, very various, and un- 
utterably strong and tender ; they are fitted to try the 
strength of human wickedness, and when resisted, show 
how deep and desperate that wickedness and that resist- 
ance are. Human wickedness is always enhanced and 
aggravated by all the calls and motives to repentance, 
where those calls and motives are disregarded. And 
where are these motives multiplied, and where do they 
assume such urgency and tenderness, and overwhelming 
force, as from the Cross ? That rebuke and those terrors, 
that bondage of the curse and those forms of horror, that 
exclusion from the divine favor, that abhorrence of the 
Holy God in this world, and that everlasting damnation 
in the world to come, which are the inheritance of all 
who reject the Gospel — these are fearful motives indeed, 
but effective motives to all save those whom no motives 
will dissuade from their unbelief. That beauty of holi- 
ness and that deformity of sin which are there expressed, 
that all-sufficient atonement and those expiatory suffer- 
ings, that Saviour and that mercy, that favor of heaven's 
King restored, and his communion and presence — sins 
forgotten, and the wrathful curse removed, adoption into 
the divine family and an inheritance in the divine king- 
dom — these form another class of moving considerations 
by which the Cross would fain carry the sinner's heart. 
All this the unbeliever tramples under his feet. He 
either questions, or depreciates, or despises it all. Con- 
siderations like these, and other kindred motives, warmly 
urged and oft-repeated, are everywhere inviting, urging, 
supplicating him to turn and live. But he is '' stout- 



406 THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 

hearted and far from righteousness." No precept con- 
trols, no penalty restrains him, no chains of darkness 
nor vials of wrath terrify him, and no lips of love, no 
arms of mercy allure and charm him. Nothing moves 
that reluctant, resisting heart ; unbelief transforms it to 
adamant. It has an obstinacy which is unyielding and 
impenetrable, and which, if unmoved and unrepented of, 
the Cross itself cannot rescue from a fearful retribution. 

It is a thought also not to be overlooked, that unbelief 
involves the highest coiitempt of God. All sin is a virtual 
contempt of God. The convinced sinner feels this ; and 
still more deeply does the true penitent feel it, and in 
bitterness of soul confesses, " Against thee, thee only, 
have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight!" Those 
sins are emphatically most contemptuous, which are 
committed in full view of the divine character, and claims, 
and glory. When the great facts and truths which the 
Cross discloses are set before the mind, they bring God 
directly into view. God himself is the Author of this 
wondrous redemption. Nowhere is he brought to the 
view of the mind so directly, and so distinctly ; and in 
no view of him is it possible for the sinner to treat him 
with such indignity as by a deliberate and intelligent 
rejection of this method of mercy. As the Cross is the 
highest proof of the divine existence, so, in rejecting it, 
the unbeliever says in his heart, " There is no God." As 
the Cross is the highest expression of the divine love, 
wisdom, justice and power, so unbelief sets at nought 
these affecting exhibitions of the divine nature. There 
is no such demonstration of the enmity of the carnal 
mind against God as is made by the actings of unbelief. 
The ''glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ.'*' 
His Cross is the highest expression of that glory. All 
things that are in heaven and on earth, visible and in- 



THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 407 

visible, whether they be thrones, principalities or powers, 
are but auxiliaries to this great work of redeeming mercy, 
and as the more retired features of that full portraiture 
of the Deity. Greater honors and more exalted ascrip- 
tions of praise are paid to him for this redemption, than 
for any other enterprise he has undertaken. Yet all this 
is set at nought by the spirit of unbelief. This great 
work, for which all other works were made — this great 
design, which comprehends all other designs — this holiest 
and best purpose, itself the glory and pride of the eternal 
Godhead — is opposed, obstructed, degraded and dishon- 
ored, wherever it is rejected. The wisdom and love of 
the Eternal Father are dishonored in the gift of his Son; 
and the amazing condescension, kindness and self-denial 
of the Son are dishonored in his mysterious incarnation and 
agonizing sufferings ; nor is God the Spirit less dishonored 
in the testimony he bears to the truths and obligations 
of the Gospel. The ever-blessed and adorable Trinity 
has no greater complaint against men, than that, after all 
the condescension and sufferings of the Cross, men look 
uipon the blood of the Covenant as a common thing, and, 
because they think him unworthy of their confidence, 
and not fit to be entrusted with their salvation, crucify 
the Son of God openly, and put him to open shame. 
The whole weight of this combined authority and influ- 
ence is thrown against the unbelief of men, and in favor 
of Christ and his salvation ; yet unbelief resists it all, 
and in this resistance, trifles with the King eternal, im- 
mortal and invisible, casts contempt on Him who created, 
supports and moves the universe — mocks, insults Him 
before whom angels bow and devils tremble. 

There is another characteristic of unbelief which also 
exhibits its great wickedness : it is directed against the best 
interests of that kingdom of truth and holiness ivhich Jesus 



408 THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 

Christ has established in this apostate world. The Cross 
of Christ is fitted to make men holy and happy, and to 
diffuse and perpetuate the highest degree of holiness and 
happiness. The system of truth of which it is the great 
expression was revealed to men in order to secure this 
great and benevolent object. To reject it, is therefore 
virtually to oppose all the holiness and happiness it is 
adapted to secure. The unbeliever cannot perform an 
act which has a more invariable and constant tendency 
to annul the mediatorial work of the Son of God, frus- 
trate his atonement, and rob him of his reward, than hi-i 
own rejection of this great sacrifice. He is not only 
willing that others should reject it, but does all that his 
own constant example can efifect to induce them to do so. 
It would be no grief of heart to him if all men should 
treat the Saviour just as he treats him, and if every son 
and daughter of Adam should be as unholy in this world, 
and as miserable in the next, as he. If all the unbelief in 
the world could be embodied and personified in one man, 
it would be found, at heart, to have no better spirit than 
this. The malignity of sin, and especially the great ma- 
lignity of the sin of unbelief, is very apt to be acted out 
in those seasons of mercy when God is in an unusual 
degree pouring out his Spirit, and bringing men in great 
numbers to repentance. When unbelievers see others 
pressing into the divine kingdom, they are unhappy ; 
their hearts rise against God, as well as against those who 
accept his mercy. If the truth were known, and the 
spirit which actuates them expressed, it would be seen 
that they desire all to enter into their views, sympathize 
with their feelings, and unite with them in their hostility 
to God and the Gospel of his Son. When the great mass 
of men around them make light of the Gospel, they are 
gratified ; and on the other hand, when multitudes are 



THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 409 

arrested in their career, and bowing their heads before 
the Cross, they are dissatisfied and unhappy. And is it 
too much to say that such persons are enemies to the 
great interests of holiness and happiness in the world 1 I 
know it is a solemn and fearful thought to which I give 
utterance, but it is one which I may not suppress. Ab- 
stract from the bosom of such a man all those bland and 
social affections which fit him for a habitation among 
men — take off all the restraints of habit, education, self- 
respect, and preventing grace — and he will view the 
holiness and happiness of the divine kingdom just as 
Satan views them, and feel toward them just as Satan 
feels. Such is the true spirit of the malignant sin of 
unbelief. 

There is still another thought which illustrates the 
great wickedness of this sin. It is a sin against the soul. 
Men sometimes dream that they are their own proprie- 
tors, and have a right to throw away their souls and rush 
upon an undone eternity. But the soul of man is the 
most precious deposit committed to his keeping. The 
benevolent Creator has stamped upon it a value beyond 
the power of numbers, or thought, to estimate. The mer- 
ciful Saviour has propounded the still unsolved problem, 
*' What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, 
and lose his soul ; or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his souH" But though born for immortality, the 
soul may perish, and, even from this early dawn of its 
being in this terrestrial world, sink to an abyss ten-fold 
deeper than eternal annihilation. There is one sin that 
kills it, and only one. Unbelief, incorrigible rejection of 
the Cross of Christ, separates it from God and holiness, 
and cuts it off from hope and heaven. This is one of 
the aggravations of this unnatural crime. It is cruel 
neglect of the soul — it is eternal suicide. It is nothing 
18 



410 THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN 

less than choosing- to rebel against God, reject his Son, 
and be damned, rather than submit to God, receive his 
Gospel, and be saved. It is the deliberate and persever- 
ing refusal of eternal life. Well has Eternal Wisdom 
declared, ^' He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own 
soul : all that hate me love death." Can the sin be 
harmless which makes a rational being so abandoned as 
to consent to be damned ? What can be said of the sin 
that thus resists the light of truth, the power of motives, 
the authority of God— which thus trifles with the best 
interests of the divine kingdom, and kills the soul — but 
that it is the sin of sins, infamous beyond infamy, and 
the strongest expression of human wickedness, even in 
all the maturity and strength of its moral corruption ? 

Most men, if they avoid gross sins, if their history is 
not blackened with crime, have no serious compunctions 
of conscience, though from the love of sinning they reject 
the Cross of Christ. But the time is coming when it will 
be seen to be a fearful crime to have lived and died a 
despiser of this great salvation. Sodom and Babylon, 
India and China, have no sin that can be compared with 
this rejection of a crucified Saviour. " If I had not come 
among them," says the Saviour of the Jews, '^ they had 
not had sin ; but now they have no cloak for their sin." 
Proud and stubborn unbeliever! the eye that never slum- 
bers is upon you as you wag your head, and pass con- 
temptuously by his Cross. Angels look with wonder to 
see you thus cast contempt upon their Sovereign Lord. 
And with what emotions of horror and self-indignation 
will you yourself, in some future period of your history, 
reflect on the wickedness of having closed your ears and 
hardened your heart against the claims of redeeming 
mercy I In the early part of my ministry, I became 
acquainted with a heathen youth brought from the Sand- 



THE CROSS REJECTED, THE GREAT SIN. 411 

wich Islands to this land, where, having dwelt but a few 
short years, he died in the triumphs of faith. God was 
pleased to open his eyes to his true character as a sinner, 
and he felt that he was lost. One day he was found sit- 
ting alone and in tears. On being asked why he wept, 
he replied, '' Because I have been so long in this Christian 
land and have not yet accepted Jesus Christ /^^ How will 
the dwellers in pagan lands, who scarcely heard before 
they cheerfully accepted the Gospel, rise up in judgment 
against the men of this generation, who have so long 
heard and rejected the only Saviour ! Oh, men are 
thoughtless beyond conception, they are stupid as the 
brutes that perish, and madness is in their hearts, who 
have no anxiety, no ingenuous misgivings, no inward 
and deep distress of soul, at the thought of having so 
long despised and rejected God's only and well-beloved 
Son! 

The consequence of this rejection of the Cross is future 
and eternal death. " He that belie veth not shall be 
damned." Men who live under the Gospel deserve to 
perish for not believing it. Revolving ages of suffering 
cannot exhaust their ill-desert. What is more in accord- 
ance with all true notions of justice and equity, than that, 
if you refuse the life he offers, God should give you the 
death you choose ? Had you heard of Christ but once, 
you would have been without excuse for rejecting him. 
But you have heard so often that you well-nigh weary 
of the message. The lips that have uttered it so often 
in your hearing will soon be silent and dust will be 
upon them. God's wearied long-suffering, too, will soon 
have reached its last limit. As yet, his clemency waits, 
and, kind and melting as the love of Calvary, urges you 
to " repent and believe the Gospel." 



CONCLUSION 



I BRING to a close this series of observations on the at- 
traction of the Cross. The day is fast approaching when 
the writer and the reader will stand before the Son of 
Man: he to answer for the motives and the manner in 
which he has endeavored to magnify the Cross of Him 
who is " despised and rejected of men ;" they, for the 
reception they have given to these great truths. As I 
take my leave of this interesting subject, allow me to in- 
quire. Have you found in the preceding pages any 
delineation of your own character, or any response to the 
attractions of the Cross within your own bosom 1 If you 
contemplate these attractions without interest, without 
conviction, without love and confidence, without hope ; 
must you not fill your own bosom with self-reproach? 
You may turn away from the Cross of Christ, but wher- 
ever you turn will find '' no more sacrifice for sin." 
Behold, then, this '' Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sins of the world !" Often has he been " lifted up," and 
*^set forth evidently crucified in the midst of you." 
Other efforts of his power and love you may have resisted ; 
but there remains this highest, this last — the love and 
power of the Cross. This is the last remaining barrier 
in your path to perdition. Heaven's tenderest mercy is 
even now beseeching you to stop at the Cross of its bleed- 
ing Son. Ho ! all ye that pass by, stop and kneel at the 
Cross ! 

Christian reader! call your thoughts and affections often 



CONCLUSION. 413 

around the Cross. Let it ever be your refreshment and 
joy. He '' that liveth and was dead, and is alive forever 
more," has said — what has he saidt — '^Because I live, 
YE SHALL LIVE ALSO !" I do not know a more delight- 
ful assurance in all the Bible than this. Oh, it is a touch- 
ing thought, that the death was his, and the life is yours ; 
his the sorrows, the weeping — yours the relief, the smiles, 
the joy ; his the agony, the shame, the curse — yours the 
pardon, the honor, the glory, the immortality ; his, too, 
the restored life, the life that shall never die — yours, to 
live and reign forever with the Lord ! Be your pilgrim- 
age long or short, never pitch your tent but in sight of 
the Cross. More and more will it be to you the " pearl 
of great price," your glory, and the crown of your re- 
joicing. More and more will you rest upon it the whole 
burden of your sins and the whole weight of your eternity, 
and, with a confidence alike humbled and cheerful, ascribe 
present and unceasing honor to Him who was '^ lifted up 
from the earth." Say of it — 

" The Cross my all. 
My theme, my inspiration, and my crown ! 
My strength in age, my rise in low estate ! 
My soul's ambition, pleasure, wealth, my world ! 
My light in darkness, and my life in death ! 
My boast through time — bliss through eternity — 
Eternity too short to speak its praise !" 



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